James Bond in online banking gaffe

Swiss banking information belonging to ex-James Bond star Roger Moore was accidentally published on the Internet, Credit Suisse bank has confirmed.

Payments to Roger Moore and other actors and musicians for royalties were inadvertently exposed on a test area for the banks online banking service Direct Net. The area is used to simulate the Direct Net service for potential customers.

The Swiss bank, however, says it is not to blame for the exposure. It says that the blunder was caused by a Swiss company called SwissPerform, which organises royalty payments to artists. Details of the incident were originally published in Swiss Newspaper Blick "The data concerned comprised information which originated from an external company and not from Credit Suisse," says a statement from the bank. "Credit Suisse regrets this incident. The test mode of Direct Net is at present clearly designated as such, and it will now be examined and adapted if necessary. In the meantime, however, access to the test area of Direct Net will remain blocked."

Credit Suisse discovered the problem Thursday although the spokesman estimates that the information was exposed for a week. It blocked the online Thursday and it remains publicly inaccessible. The spokesman does not say how many artists were effected by the incident or how much the payments were for.

"We will contact those people to talk and explain the situation," says the Credit Suisse spokesman.

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