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30 December 2002
Volumes caused delays
Standard Bank card division has been experiencing considerable challenges in processing unprecedented volumes of credit and debit card transactions this December. On 21 December, the number of transactions processed on Standard Bank systems was at times about three times the normal daily volume. Our call centre, which is fully staffed and will remain fully staffed for the festive season, is handling twice the usual number of calls a day.
Compounding the situation for Standard Bank is that it is the biggest issuer of credit and debit cards and as such an increase in volumes to the levels that we have seen places tremendous pressure on both our processing capability and on our systems, which thankfully have now been addressed. Card transactions need to be authorised by the issuing bank. Because merchants accredited to other banks were having difficulty getting through to us, we temporarily assigned authority to approve transactions to other banks to alleviate the situation for customers.
It appears that all banks were having similar challenges to a greater or lesser degree, which is understandable given the level shopping activity.
We regret inconvenience to customers and merchants. We thank our many thousands of customers for their patience and promise that we are doing all we can to eliminate these problems.
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