Australian banking group ANZ has refunded 200,000 MasterCard users a total of A$45 million after a problem with a database caused transactions to be billed twice on accounts.
According to press reports, the problem affected a total of 400,000 transactions, with a value of $45 million, between 9pm last Friday and 5pm on Monday. The glitch resulted in Mastercard customers being charged twice for transactions.
However, the problem only affected non-ANZ MasterCard customers using ANZ eftpos facilities. ANZ customers were not affected as their transactions were processed on a separate database. Bank spokesman Paul Edwards told reporters that the problem was extra embarrassing because it impacted people who aren't even ANZ customers.
The bank became aware of the problem on Tuesday and processed the refunds - including interest and fees - on Wednesday.
Edwards told reporters that it is not yet clear whether the bungle was the result of human error or a computer glitch, but says the bank has put in place additional checks and processes to ensure that doesn't happen again.