Users of Maestro payment cards faced
rejection over the weekend because of a major network failure on Saturday
afternoon.
As a result of the breakdown in the chip-and-PIN system, customers of major
high street banks were told their accounts were empty and were unable to pay for
goods.
Thousands of customers were affected by problems that were not resolved until
the evening.
The crash comes shortly after the
two-year
anniversary of chip-and-PIN credit and debit cards in the
UK,
which has reduced face-to-face fraud by 47 per cent since 2005.
Maestro, owned by credit card company Mastercard, was not available to
comment on the incident.
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