BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s central bank on Saturday ordered local lenders to immediately start refunding customers for erroneous fees charged earlier this week by Apple’s (NASDAQ:) electronic payment service affecting hundreds of thousands of accounts in Hungary.
The central bank said about 780,000 erroneous charges were made on Wednesday evening, worth a total of more than 2 billion forints ($5.43 million), adding that the incident was caused by a technical glitch at an international bank card processing partner in Apple’s online store.
The statement by the National Bank of Hungary is the first official indication of the scale of the problem. The name of Apple’s bank card partner was not disclosed.
The central bank, which is also responsible for regulating the financial sector, said the problem was not the result of a cyberattack.
“NBH is not satisfied with the pace of current procedures and calls on financial service providers to immediately start refunding customers,” the bank said.
He added that the foot-dragging by Hungarian banks is “totally unacceptable”, also calling on lenders to start refunding customers who have not yet submitted a compensation claim.
Apple could not yet be reached for comment.
The central bank said it would launch a detailed investigation to check whether the way Hungarian banks handled complaints and refunds following the incident was in line with applicable regulations.
(1 dollar = 368.58 forints)
