Thousands of bank customers in Germany were temporarily unable to pay with their Girocard on Thursday. Payments in stores with the Girocard from the savings bank group were not possible for around two hours in the morning, said a spokeswoman for the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV).
According to the DSGV, disruptions occurred when an internal encryption process was used. This led to payment cards being rejected at individual retailers’ terminals. As a result, there could still be impairments or cancellations in individual transactions, the association said.
According to media reports, customers of other institutions were also affected by failures, although these are said to have no connection with the failures at the savings banks. A spokeswoman for the Federal Association of Volks- und Raiffeisenbank said that she currently had no reports of disruptions at institutions in the group.