THE Bank of England is examining a claim that Metro Bank "pirated" a US company's software, putting data at risk, City A.M. has learnt.

The central bank's regulatory arm received an email, seen by City A.M., in February from a whistleblower raising concerns that software used for the high street lender's coin-counting machines had been built out by the bank without the developer's authorisation.

Metro Bank's "Magic Money" machines are mainly advertised towards children, allowing them to add up change in its branches.

The whistleblower said in the email that the bank had introduced the ability for cash to be deposited directly into customers' accounts using the machines, which made the system "very vulnerable to hackers".

The whistleblower said they contacted the BOE shortly after viewing the source code used in the "Magic Money" machines and finding that it contained "several" of the company's encrypted keys.

City A.M. approached Metro Bank for comment.

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