Mastercard Says Brief Australia Payment Disruption Is Resolved

Mastercard card payments were temporarily declined for some Australian customers on Saturday afternoon because of a global issue that has since been resolved, according to the company.

“A scheduled system update caused Mastercard transactions to be declined for a period of time earlier today,” a Mastercard spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The situation has been resolved and all systems are working as normal.”

Earlier, Commonwealth Bank of Australia said payments were being declined due to the issue. Downdetector — a site through which users can report outages with their service — had more than 1,900 reports by 3:27 p.m. in Sydney. The biggest issues reported by customers included transferring funds and mobile banking.

The disruption had threatened to hit businesses heading into the busy Saturday evening trade.

“Today, cash is king,” Asha Thompson, a bar manager at Kent St. Bar in Melbourne’s Collingwood neighborhood, said before the issue was resolved. “We’ve got a whole night to get through and it’s the biggest night of the week. It could be 40% of our takings.”