A computer error plunged tens of thousands of customers of Bank 24, the direct banking unit of Germany's mighty Deutsche Bank, into billions of marks of debt overnight, it emerged yesterday.

A programming error meant billions of marks were debited from some 55,000 securities accounts, a spokeswoman for Bank 24 said.

The error occurred on Tuesday evening during routine quarterly settlement of the accounts, but was immediately noticed and corrected, the spokeswoman said. All accounts had been correctly brought up to date by yesterday morning, with no disadvantage for the customers, she added.