AIB card and ATM glitch hits shoppers

THOUSANDS of Christmas shoppers were left without the use of ATM machines and credit cards yesterday after the collapse of many of AIB’s systems.

At one stage, almost a third of the bank’s ATM, credit and debit card machines were out of use for a few hours.

The bank went into overdrive to fix the situation and brought the systems up to 90% productivity later in the day.

AIB, Ireland’s largest bank, could not say what caused the glitch adding that it was investigating the matter.

It also was unable to say how many people were affected.

The Irish Payment Services Organisation said it was investigating reports from cardholders who said they were having difficulties processing transactions at ATMs and at some retail outlets.

AIB was working yesterday to implement a back-up system so if these issues occur again the impact to consumers and retailers will be minimal, the payment services organisation said.