Bank of Ireland has given some customers a scare by telling them their overdraft is 100 times greater than it really is.

It accidentally left a decimal point off the letters that it sent to the customers last week.

This meant that a customer with a 50.00 euro overdraft was told it was 5000 euro.

The letters were sent under new consumer credit regulations that require the bank to write to customers who exceed their overdraft limits for 30 days or more.

In a statement the bank has confirmed that the decimal point was left off letters to some customers.

It said the error was an "isolated incident affecting only certain customers".

It added that it would now write to them to apologise.