Republic Bank fixes credit card issue

Republic Bank Ltd says it has fixed the "technical challenges" which resulted in charges from PriceSmart on Friday. It came in a release on Tuesday morning.

Although its release did not name the company, customers around the country, belonging to different banks, all experienced an unknown transaction from PriceSmart charged to their credit cards on Friday. The issue has not been publicly reported as occurring with any other company. While a reimbursement was made, it fell short of the sum charged.

The bank's release confirmed the incident saying transactions that were conducted between August 14 to September 6 "at certain merchants," were reversed and re-posted within the past few weeks."The bank acknowledges that this was because of technical challenges experienced with our credit card processing system which resulted in the original transactions being incorrectly processed as USD transactions. The bank also confirms that these issues have since been corrected," it said. The release said it is working closely with all local banks to identify impacted customers and will take all steps necessary to address any discrepancies. "We appreciate the concern that this situation has caused to customers and our valued merchant partners and for this, we sincerely apologise," it said.

In a statement on Monday, PriceSmart acknowledged a "technical issue in processing," which has affected multiple banks and merchants outside its control. It blamed fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate resulted in the difference between the sum charged and what was reimbursed. PriceSmart said it is working with all banks to have the issue rectified. "We will ensure that any Member who has a discrepancy on their account resulting in an overcharge will be reimbursed for the difference in charges," it said.

On Monday, the Bankers Association assured customers that the incident was "not any type of fraudulent or cyber-crime activity against customers and their banking information remains secure."