SYDNEY (Bloomberg): Some Mastercard card payments are being declined for Australian customers on Saturday afternoon because of a global issue, Commonwealth Bank of Australia said.
"Mastercard card payments are being restored following a global Mastercard issue,” Commonwealth said in a statement. All other CommBank services, including ATMs, remained available, it said.
Downdetector - a site through which users can report outages with their service - had more than 1,900 reports by 3:27 p.m. in Sydney. The biggest issues reported by customers included transferring funds and mobile banking.
The ABC network said people across several Australian states had reached out to tell it about payment issues. Problems with Apple payments, Mastercard travel cards and cash withdrawals from ATMs were also reported, it said.
For businesses heading into the busy Saturday evening trade, the disruption threatened to hit takings.
"Today, cash is king,” said Asha Thompson, a bar manager at Kent St. Bar in Melbourne’s Collingwood neighborhood. "We’ve got a whole night to get through and it’s the biggest night of the week. It could be 40% of our takings.”
Later, Mastercard said the problems were because of a global issue that has since been resolved, according to the company.
"A scheduled system update caused Mastercard transactions to be declined for a period of time earlier today," a Mastercard spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "The situation has been resolved, and all systems are working as normal."
