Intesa Sanpaolo says most operations restored after ION ransomware attack

LONDON (Reuters) - Intesa Sanpaolo said on Thursday that most of its affected cleard derivatives operations were back up and running, after a ransomware attack at financial data company ION impacted operations at the Italian bank.

ION Markets UK's cleared derivatives section was hit with a ransomware attack on Jan. 31.

The attack rippled across derivatives markets, gumming up trading and clearing in exchange-traded derivatives at some of the biggest banks and financial institutions in the world, including Intesa Sanpaolo.

Intesa said the situation was improving on Thursday, as ION scrambled to get its clients back up and running.

"We promptly adopted measures to avoid fully suspending activities related to the exchange-traded derivatives segment," a spokesman at the bank told Reuters. "Most operations have now been restored."

"We also immediately carried out security checks to protect our clients and ensure that our own systems were free of contagion."

An ION spokesperson said they got some clients reconnected to their services on Tuesday and that the work continued on Thursday.

(Reporting by Harry Robertson; Editing by Amanda Cooper)