Bank of America’s Wealth Management Division Leaks Names, Social Security Numbers of 1,883 Pension Plan Members

Bank of America’s wealth management firm, Merrill, says an employee has accidentally leaked the personal data of 1,883 pension plan members.

The banking giant sent a data breach notice to the Office of the Maine Attorney General stating the employee inadvertently emailed the first names, last names and Social Security numbers of Walmart 401(k) plan participants to an “unauthorized recipient.”

Merrill says the incident is isolated and it does not believe the exposed data has been abused.

“The email has been confirmed deleted. We are not aware of any misuse of the personal information disclosed.”

The incident follows a pair of data breaches affecting customers at banking giants JPMorgan Chase and Santander.

Last week, Santander revealed “certain information” on an undisclosed number of employees and customers in Chile, Spain and Uruguay has been exposed, with unauthorized access to the data confirmed.

And early this month, JPMorgan Chase said it discovered a software bug that enabled unauthorized internal access to retirement plan records of 451,809 customers, which contain names, addresses, Social Security numbers and bank account numbers.

JPMorgan says the bug has been fixed and it has no indication that the personal information has been misused.

Merrill says it’s recommending affected customers review their credit reports and account statements over the next two years to search for unauthorized transactions and potential identity theft, offering a two-year membership to Experian IdentityWorks.

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