Capitec fingers Absa in banking glitch
Capitec says that a delay in its processing of transactions over December 2012 is tied to Absa-supported card machines.
Capitec was hit with complaints on Monday (7 January) after users experienced some point of sale deductions due in December 2012 only being effected on Sunday (6 January).
Capitec apologized to users and explained that this was due to some merchants banking their Point of Sale Machines late.
“This meant that purchases done earlier only reflected on some clients’ accounts today (6 January),” the bank said.
“There is no way to force merchants to bank their machines daily. Machines can be linked to any bank,” Capitec said in a statement.
In a follow-up statement, Capitec pointed to Absa-supported card machines as the culprit.
“We can confirm that all these transactions debited late on our clients’ accounts were done at Absa-supported card machines during the period 13 to 18 December 2012,” Capitec said.
“In particular the majority of these transactions occurred at retailers supported by Absa and who have the card machine integrated into their own till systems.”
The bank said further that the late submission of transactions by Absa was unusual but not outside the interbank card system rules. “It is still uncertain how many of other banks’ clients were also affected,” it said.
Capitec reiterated that no Capitec Bank clients had a double deduction of the same amount on their account.
Absa’s response
“Absa experienced a system problem in processing card transactions from some of our retailers from the 16th to 18 December 2012. Only transactions processed through the MasterCard International clearing system were affected.”
After identifying the problem internally, it was rectified, Absa said.
“The transaction being presented now for debit to the client’s account is still a valid transaction, completing the original purchase transaction.”
“In order to ensure that we make our customers’ lives much easier, measures have been put in place to ensure this processing error does not re-occur. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused to all affected cardholders and Absa acquired retailers.”
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