And so it begins… Be sure to keep some cash handy at all times.
- France may be heading for an IMF bailout, warns French Finance Minister
- Predictions that the minority government will fall next week have spooked the markets, adding to the problems of a massive national debt.
- France risks seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund as its government teeters on the brink of collapse, its finance minister has warned.
- Crédit Mutuel, and CIC, are the major named banks in a nationwide payment outage starting this afternoon around 5:30 PM CEST. There has been no comment from the banks, and no info has been placed on their websites. People all over France are now unable to pay for groceries, unable to withdraw cash, some are stuck at highway tolls and railway stations on a Saturday afternoon. Many French are doing back-to-school shopping as the school year starts Monday, but they can’t pay for what they need to buy. No word on what caused the outage or when it will be resolved.
- A massive outage is hitting several French banks, including Crédit Mutuel, CIC, Crédit Agricole, and Société Générale: card payments and withdrawals are IMPOSSIBLE. Toll booths are JAMMED with holiday traffic, and card terminals are showing declined payments.
I assume Clown World will manage to muddle through this initial bank crisis one way or another. But it’s not going to be the last one, as the combination of refusing to buy Russian gas and massive spending on Ukraine and unproductive migrants has destroyed the French, German, and UK economies.
It’s likely to be a interesting autumn. It should be a good time to stay in, read some good books, and generally keep things conservative.
UPDATE: all the cash machines were offline in my part of Scotland yesterday.
Shades of October 2008, but this time it will almost certainly be on a larger scale.
UPDATE: Not to worry, it’s just the IT department enhancing the French user experience. Or so we’re informed.
According to a spokesperson for Crédit Mutuel, the issue stemmed from an internal bug affecting payment acceptance for cardholders of the three banks. Reports suggest the problem arose following a routine computer update, preventing the system from verifying account balances during transactions, leading to widespread payment refusals. Crucially, other banking services, such as bank transfers, remained operational, indicating the issue was isolated to card payment processing.
Yet another justification for UATV’s move away from credit cards.