Associated Press
INTERNATIONAL.- Visa says a problem that left people across Europe unable to use their cards was caused by a hardware fault, not a cyberattack. The card payments company says services are back to normal and its systems are working at “full capacity” on Saturday.

It says the problem was caused by “a hardware failure within one of our European systems” and wasn’t the result of “unauthorized access.” Consumers in Britain, Ireland and other European countries reported having credit and debit card payments declined on Friday, and many businesses said they couldn’t process Visa transactions.

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Visa users in several European countries reported being unable to make payments with their credit and debit cards on Friday, and the company said it was experiencing a “service disruption.” The credit card firm said the incident was “preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed.”

“We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation,” Visa said in a statement. Consumers in Britain, Ireland and other European countries reported having card payments declined. The bank HSBC said the “industry-wide issue” was affecting Visa payments, though ATM machines were still working.