Visa card payments in Europe resume after disruption

BRUSSELS - Visa said its payment system in Europe "is now operating at full capacity" on Saturday morning after a widespread disruption hit the continent and Britain on the previous day.

"Visa has resolved a technical issue which occurred yesterday in Europe and prevented some consumers from using Visa for payments," the company said, while affirming that "the issue was the result of a hardware failure within one of our European systems and is not associated with any unauthorized access or cyberattack."

"Visa account holders can now use Visa for any of their purchases and at ATMs, as they normally would," the company said, adding that it apologizes "to all of our partners and Visa account holders for any inconvenience."

On Friday, Visa acknowledged the disruption in Europe after consumers and businesses complained about payment rejections.