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More than one million sets of details for banking customers were stored on a network attached storage (NAS) device that an IT manager bought from auction website eBay, it has emerged.

Andrew Chapman received the details for £35 which included the names, addresses, bank numbers and credit card details of banking clients, as well as answers to secret questions and customer signatures.

He said: "I couldn't believe it.

"In front of me was reams of extremely confidential information about thousands and thousands of people."

Graphic Data, a company that specialises in data storage for major banks, was held responsible for the loss by NatWest and American Express, which are currently leading inquiries into the actions of the former employee of the company which sold the device.

On Sunday, the Guardian reported the propositions of the Conservative party after the loss of 84,000 prisoner details by PA Consulting, with the opposition calling for companies who lose data to be prosecuted.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent)