A bank customer was shocked to find that the funds in her account had disappeared and had to endure a night of panic before being told that it was because of an “operational error”.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said that on Monday she was using Butterfield Bank’s online service only to see there were “zero” funds on her account that previously held thousands of dollars.

Butterfield has said that a temporary hold was placed on the accounts of 22 customers because of an “operational error in card processing” and that the problem was quickly rectified.

The customer told The Royal Gazette: “It is pretty alarming to go online and have literally nothing in your bank account.

“It was too late to call the local branch, so I tried to call the after-hours number, but they couldn’t help.

“I was up all night in a tailspin panic wondering if my card had been hacked and how much I would be liable for.

“Needless to say, I couldn’t make any withdrawals for well over 24 hours — it showed as zero balance and that’s that. It’s lucky I wasn’t travelling or had to pay out funds for bills at the time.

“The bank got in touch and the money came back on Tuesday afternoon.

“I am worried it will happen again; I have everything with them, my business and personal banking — it’s worrying.

“The other part is there is no one to call after hours. You can call card service but they had no access to anything on my related bank account. They should have a hotline for something like that happening.”

A spokesman for the bank said: “Due to an operational error in card processing, a temporary hold was applied to the available balances of 22 client accounts in Bermuda on March 25.

“The hold was released the same day and no clients suffered any financial loss related to this incident.

“Butterfield apologises for any inconvenience.”

The customer maintains that she noticed the funds were missing on Monday despite the bank’s claim that the hold was applied on Tuesday.