UK politicians are calling Visa to account for the hardware failure on Friday that left people across the UK and Europe unable to use their cards to pay for goods and services.
Nicky Morgan, chair of the cross-party Treasury Committee, has written to Visa chief Charlotte Hogg to find out what went wrong, how Visa will ensure that a similar failure doesn’t happen again, and whether customers or merchants will be entitled to compensation.
Says Morgan: "A third of all spending in the UK is processed by Visa. It’s deeply worrying, therefore, that such a vital part of the country’s payment infrastructure can fail so catastrophically.
"The consequences were sudden and severe. Many consumers and businesses were left stranded on Friday, unable to make or accept payments, with chaos reported in shops."
She says that if the Committee is not satisfied with the answers received by Hogg, the Visa chief will be hauled before Parliament to give evidence in person.