Tesco Bank hacked

All online transactions have been stopped after more than 20,000 customers lose money

Tesco Bank has been hacked, with money stolen from 20,000 customer accounts. All online transactions have been suspended until further notice.

The bank, which has more than 7 million customers, confirmed on Saturday that around 40,000 accounts saw "suspicious transactions" over the weekend, of which half had money taken.

Benny Higgins, Tesco Bank CEO, said in a statement on the company's website: "Tesco Bank can confirm that, over the weekend, some of its customers' current accounts have been subject to online criminal activity, in some cases resulting in money being withdrawn fraudulently."

Customers are reporting that as much as £2,000 has been siphoned from their accounts over the weekend, with those affected also complaining that they are unable to get through to Tesco on the phone.

As well as suspending its online operations, Tesco Bank says it has moved to block some customers' cards. The company hopes to refund customers within 24 hours, it said in a statement to the BBC.

"As a precautionary measure, we have taken the decision today to temporarily stop online transactions from current accounts. This will only affect current account customers," Higgins said.

"While online transactions will not be available, current account customers will still be able to use their cards for cash withdrawals, chip and pin payments, and all existing bill payments and direct debits will continue as normal. We are working hard to resume normal service on current accounts as soon as possible."

However, the Financial Conduct Authority says banks must refund unauthorised payments immediately, unless they have evidence that the customer was at fault or the payment was more than 13 months ago.

Computing will update this story as soon as we hear more.