Visa says a problem that left people across Europe, including Malta, unable to use their cards was caused by a hardware fault, not a cyberattack.

The card payments company says services are back to normal and its systems are working at "full capacity" on Saturday.

It says the problem was caused by "a hardware failure within one of our European systems" and wasn't the result of "unauthorized access."

Consumers in Britain, Ireland and other European countries reported having credit and debit card payments declined on Friday, and many businesses said they couldn't process Visa transactions.

The bank HSBC said Friday that the "industry-wide issue" affected Visa payments, though ATM machines were still working.