BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s central bank told local lenders on Saturday to immediately start reimbursing customers for erroneous charges made earlier this week by Apple’s (NASDAQ:) electronic payment service affecting hundreds of thousands of accounts in Hungary are.
Some 780,000 erroneous charges totaling more than 2 billion forints ($5.43 million) were made on Wednesday evening, the central bank said, adding that the incident was due to a technical problem at the online bank’s international bank card partner. Apple store.
The statement from the National Bank of Hungary marks the first official indication of the scale of the issue. Apple’s bank card partner was not mentioned.
The central bank, which is also responsible for regulating the financial sector, said the issue was not the result of a cyber attack.
“The NBH is not satisfied with the pace of the current procedures and calls on financial service providers to immediately reimburse customers,” the bank said.
It added that the foot-dragging by Hungarian banks was “completely unacceptable” and called on lenders to refund customers who have not yet applied for compensation.
Apple was not immediately available for comment.
The central bank said it would launch an in-depth investigation to see whether Hungarian banks’ handling of complaints and refunds after the incident was in line with existing regulations.
($1 = 368.58 forints)
