Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s high-profile IT payment outages are to be investigated by the industry watchdog amid concerns over potential vulnerabilities in the infrastructure.
The Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) said it would review the tech blackouts earlier this week and is liaising with the Bank of England about the recent payment failures, The Telegraph reported.
The review has been prompted by a series of IT failures at leading UK food businesses over the past week, such as McDonalds, Greggs, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, which has prevented customers paying for items.
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Sainsbury’s apologised last weekend after it experienced an “error with an overnight software update” that impacted its online ordering service, in-store payment system and Argos stores.
Among other inconveniences, it left shoppers unable to use contactless payment methods, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as some self-service tills, ‘Smart Shop’, and ATMs running out of money due to a surge in withdrawals.
Tesco was also forced to cancel some home deliveries over the weekend after a “technical issue” left the grocery giant unable to complete orders.
Meanwhile, Greggs was forced to close some stores this week after an IT issue left it unable to take card payements.
