BANK of Ireland’s business banking customers face an uncertain period after the bank declined to offer an alternative to an insecure web browser for sensitive banking procedures.

The move leaves the bank’s thousands of business customers wondering whether the security of their transactions might be at risk.

Both the US and UK governments have warned people against using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser since a security flaw in the system was discovered at the weekend.

Microsoft has warned that attacks through the security flaw could lead to theft of data or “the complete compromise” of a user’s PC and that the problem has not yet been fixed.

But Bank of Ireland, which restricts its business banking customers to Internet Explorer, yesterday said that its processes would continue unchanged.