One of South Africa's leading banks has apologised to the country's Hindu community for sending beef cubes in a promotional advertisement package to Hindu clients.

In a letter to the South African Hindu Maha Sabha, which had lodged a protest over the ad, the Standard Bank said it should have anticipated that sending beef cubes would probably cause offence.

"Our failure to do so is an oversight on our part," said the bank's legal representative I H S Sinton.

"Please accept our sincerest apologies for our oversight and convey such apologies to any member of your community who may have been offended by our conduct," he said.

The president of the Maha Sabha, Ashwin Trikamjee, said he had accepted the apology.

Earlier, Trikamjee had lashed out at the bank for its 'unbelievable' insensitivity.

"A bank like Standard should have known better," he said.

Last week, the bank had apologised to the Hindu community for an online advertisement calling upon its clients to 'beef' up their accounts with the picture of a cow.

A few weeks ago, a large chicken eat-out chain, Nando's, had raised the hackles of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness by using an advertisement that depicted ISCKON followers looking forward to eating Nando's chickens.