Despite the tape's recovery, the problems for ABN Amro didn't end Tuesday. A gift code given to customers whose information was temporarily lost to allow them to sign up for a free credit monitoring service overwhelmed a Web site run by credit reporting agency Trans Union LLC. ABN Amro said initially that it would enroll those customers in the credit monitoring service for 90 days at no cost. That time frame was extended to a year Tuesday.

Tens of thousands have already registered with Trans Union Tuesday, but '2.1 million letters going out has overwhelmed the [Trans Union] Web site,' Goldstein said. 'I feel terrible about the frustration our customers are having on top of just getting this notification. TU and we are working together to fix this.'

He said Trans Union is adding a 'gateway' device to limit access to the service and notify customers when they can sign up.

As for the plans to transfer data electronically rather than by courier, Goldstein said ABN Amro has completed about 70 percent of a rollout of a secure data network to move data to its credit-reporting bureaus.

'The goal starting last spring was to eliminate all physical handling of tapes -- and any tape where we cannot eliminate the physical handling because the other party cannot receive [the electronic data] will go by special courier,' Goldstein said. He cited FedEx Corp. as one company ABN Amro might use.