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HSBC bank lost a server from a branch in Hong Kong that contained the records of 159,000 customers. It is almost exactly a month since the bank lost a computer disc with the details of 370,000 UK life assurance customers.

The admitted today that it lost a server last month, said the the Chinese Xinhua news wire. The bank had tried to keep the news quiet, it said, but local news papers got wind of the loss. The server went missing during renovation work on a branch of the bank in Kwun Tong, Kowloon. Angry customers had been closing accounts, said the Finextra news service.

The records were reported to contain account numbers, names and transactions, but not passwords or pins. HSBC was not available for comment about how it could possibly ‘lose’ an entire server.

In unrelated news, Nottingamshire police said that thieves had stolen an ATM from outside a McDonald's store. They ramraded their way through gates on the Chilwell Retail Park, Nottingam and bunged the ATM in the back of the lorry – “We’ll have that take-away”.