Live - Greggs shops closed as 'technical hitch' stops tills

Expert explains how problems can occur

An expert from takepayments - a digital payment solutions provider has spoken about why multiple businesses, also including Sainsburys, Tesco and McDonalds may have been experiencing problems with payment systems recently.

Paul Cooper, Head of IT at takepayments said:"Last weekend Sainsbury shared that the error in the payment systems was due to an overnight software update that encountered problems, which affected the ability to take contactless payments the next day. Although we don't know for sure, it sounds like the supermarket may not have tested the update sufficiently.

"It’s important for any business to test their system updates thoroughly and to keep any updates local. For example, some of our payment systems are powered by a modern platform that allows us to roll out updates gradually instead of the entire system all at once. This way, if problems do occur, the downtime for businesses can be kept localised and to a minimum."