(Jan Hájek) The central card system of CS broke down on Friday (December 22) again. The problem was caused by a huge number of demands for payment authorizations in a pre-Christmas rush. The breakdown followed another collapse ten days ago when up to a half of ATMs were out of order for almost two days. CS operates about 60% of ATMs in the Czech Republic.
These breakdowns even more stress the CS necessity of bringing a new card system into operation. It must be reminded that CS plans to invest several billion crowns in the total modernisation of the card system over the next three or four years (at least CZK 260 mil. by the end of 2000). In February 2001, CS wants to start a back-up card centre, which should deal with the current operating system instability. The new central card system should operate since the end of 2001. CS estimates total investments of CZK 8 bil. in the IT modernisation.