Foreign exchange bureau Travelex has been forced to pull the plug on its UK site after discovering a software virus infection, locking out currency swap services for a number of leading UK banks.
Travelex says it has deployed teams of IT specialists and external cyber security experts who have been working continuously since New years Eve to isolate the virus and restore affected systems.
"As a precautionary measure in order to protect data and prevent the spread of the virus, we immediately took all our systems offline," the statement reads. "Our investigation to date shows no indication that any personal or customer data has been compromised."
At the time of writing the Travelex UK site remains down, creating a domino affect at UK banks which rely on the service, including Tesco Bank, HSBC, Barclays and Virgin Money.
Travelex has yet to give an explanation for how the virus infected its systems, but IT experts speculate that its AWS-based data delivery platform had failed to implement Network Level Authentication, meaning that users had no need to authenticate before establishing a session.
The firm says that its network of branches continues to provide foreign currency services, albeit manually.