The Register has its story about this:If they should not have been held, and I am not disagreeing with you there, their deletion or wiping should have been an intentional act. Not an accident.
And I suggest it is just luck that important records were not removed.
Do they really have no backups from which they could restore the records?
Interesting statement. If this is true, it implies that they know not one of those 150,000 was or is a criminal or dangerous person. (The word "dangerous" seems even to imply future actions.)
https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/15/pnc_records_deleted/
As almost always, go on to the Comments. Not many yet.
Seems to imply they are trying to restore the data.