By Stephen Yutani. Last Updated 4th September 2024. In this guide, we will discuss how to claim compensation following a data breach at a bank. A personal data breach can cause serious psychological injury and financial loss. When an organisation has access to your personal data, it must comply with data protection laws. If you suffer harm due to a personal data breach that was caused by wrongful conduct, you may be able to claim.
We will discuss how data breaches can happen, and what criteria your claim must meet in order to be valid. You can also see examples of guideline settlement totals further in this guide.
Read on to learn more, or get in touch with our advisors. If you have any further questions that this guide doesn’t answer, our advisors are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to offer their support. To get in touch, you can:
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Choose A Section
- Definition of a Data Breach
- Data Breach at a Bank Examples
- Potential Compensation Payouts From a Bank Data Breach
- What Should I Do After a Data Breach at a Bank?
- What Are The Benefits Of Using No Win No Fee Solicitors?
- Read More About Claiming for a Data Breach at a Bank
Definition of a Data Breach
You may be wondering what is a data breach? It can be described as a security incident that comprises your personal data’s integrity, security, or confidentiality. This includes any personal information that can identify you, for example, your:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Home address
- Email address
- Phone number
- Bank details
Banks may also have access to special category data. This is a type of personal data that is given extra protection by data protection laws. Some examples of special category data can include your:
- Medical records and other health data
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Biometric data
- Trade union membership
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) upholds personal data protection laws outlined in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). This legislation outlines the steps that organisations must take when handling the personal data of UK residents.
Call our advisors today if you have suffered harm as a result of a data breach at a bank.
Data Breach at a Bank Examples
As mentioned above, banks store and process many kinds of personal data. Because of this, there are many ways that a data breach at a bank could occur. For example:
- Data misdelivery: An employee may send a digital bank statement to the wrong email address, even though your correct email address is on file. This allows third parties unauthorised access to personal data.
- Verbal disclosure: Verbal disclosure occurs when an authorised party verbally discloses personal data to an unauthorised party. For example, if a bank employee verbally disclosed your PIN to another customer.
- Cyberattack: Banks must ensure they have the correct cybersecurity policies in place. If they fail to do this, this could allow cybercriminals to steal personal data.
These are just a few examples of how a data breach at a bank could occur. However, not all instances of a data breach will form a valid claim. In order to form a valid claim, you must:
- Suffer harm due to the breach
- Prove that the breach occurred as a result of the bank’s failings
- Prove that the breach included your personal data
For more information on data breach compensation, contact our advisors today.
Potential Compensation Payouts From a Bank Data Breach
If your claim for a personal data breach at a bank succeeds, you could receive two heads of compensation. These are material damage and non-material damage. Non-material damage covers the impacts the breach has on your mental health. For example, you could suffer emotional distress, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a personal data breach.
The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) is a publication used by legal professionals to help them determine the value of data breach claims. This document contains a list of mental health injuries and provides guideline compensation amounts. You can find some examples of these amounts in the table below. Please not that the figure in the first row was not taken from the JCG. We’ve included it to show you how your settlement could include compensation for very severe mental health damage and related financial losses.
| Injury | Compensation Guideline | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Severe Psychological Damage And Financial Losses | Up to £250,000+ | If you're eligible to claim for both severe psychological harm and financial losses caused by a data breach, then you may receive a payout covering both. |
| Severe Psychological Harm (a) | £66,920 to £141,240 | Injuries will cause significant issues in coping with daily life, with a very poor prognosis. |
| Moderately Severe Psychological Harm (b) | £23,270 to £66,920 | Similar to issues as above, with a slightly better prognosis. |
| Moderate Psychological Harm (c) | £7,150 to £23,270 | A good prognosis due to symptoms that improve by the time of trial. |
| Less Severe Psychological Harm (d) | £1,880 to £7,150 | Consideration is given to remaining symptoms and their effect on daily activities, as well as the length of time affected. |
| Severe PTSD (a) | £73,050 to £122,850 | Permanent and severe symptoms affect all aspects of life, preventing the injured person from returning to work or functioning at the pre-trauma level. |
| Moderately Severe PTSD (b) | £28,250 to £73,050 | Professional help can improve the prognosis, though significant disabilities remain. |
| Moderate PTSD (c) | £9,980 to £28,250 | Continuing effects are not entirely disabling with a large recovery taking place. |
| Less Severe PTSD (d) | £4,820 to £9,980 | A full recovery can be achieved within two years though there may be some minor symptoms that continue to affect daily life. |
Other Compensation You Could Receive From a Data Breach
You can also claim material damage if you’ve suffered financial losses due to a data breach at a bank, such as having money stolen from your bank accounts, effects on your credit score and other future financial losses.
Before Vidal-Hall and Others v Google Inc (2015) appeared through the Court of Appeal, you needed to claim for both material and non-material damage in order to make a data breach claim. However, since this landmark case ended, you are now able to claim for psychological impact alone or in conjunction with material damage.
For a free consultation and estimate of what your claim could be worth, contact our advisors today.
What Should I Do After a Data Breach at a Bank?
You may be informed by the data controller that your personal information has been breached. Alternatively, you could discover the data breach yourself.
If you suspect a breach has affected your personal data, you can approach the bank and request more information. If you do not receive a response within three months, or if their response is not adequate, you can make a complaint to the ICO. The ICO can’t provide compensation, but they may choose to investigate the breach.
Generally, you will have six years to start your personal data breach claim. However, if you are claiming against a public body, for example, a local council then, this this falls to one year.
You may also wish to seek legal advice. Our advisors can offer you free legal advice with no pressure to continue to claim with us when you get in touch.
What Are The Benefits Of Using No Win No Fee Solicitors?
If you have valid grounds to make a bank data breach claim, then our advisors could put you in touch with one of the No Win No Fee solicitors on our panel. They can support data breach claims under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
Claiming under a CFA means you won’t be required to pay your solicitor for their services before your data breach in a bank claim has begun or while it is still being processed. You also usually aren’t required to pay your solicitor for their work if the claim goes ahead but fails.
If your bank data breach claim is successful, then your solicitor will receive what is commonly known as a success fee. This means they’ll subtract a small percentage from your awarded compensation. There’s a legal cap on the percentage that your solicitor can take to cover their payment, which ensures that you’ll get to keep most of the compensation.
Contact our team of advisors for free today to learn more about making a data breach claim with a No Win No Fee solicitor. Our team are happy to answer any other questions you wish to ask about the claiming process. To get in touch, you can:
- Talk to an advisor through the 24/7 live chat
- Call us on 020 8050 3051
- Use the online contact page on our website
Read More About Claiming for a Data Breach at a Bank
You can see more of our guides here:
- Can I claim for a pharmacy data breach?
- Compensation for a social services data breach
- Tips for making an airline data breach claim.
Thank you for reading our article about making a claim following a personal data breach at a bank. Our advisors are available if you have any further questions.
