Between 23:00 UTC on September 18, 2026 and 02:40 UTC on September 19, 2026, maintenance at card issuers in Saudi Arabia caused elevated Mada payment declines. The issue is now resolved.
What happened
Overnight on September 18 into September 19, 2026, card issuers in Saudi Arabia carried out scheduled maintenance on their authorization systems. Mada payments made with cards from those issuers were declined while that maintenance was in progress, even where the card and the payment details were valid.
Multiple issuers in the country were affected at the same time, so the declines were not limited to cards from a single bank.
The cause was external to Checkout.com. No change to our systems was involved, and payments made with cards from issuers outside Saudi Arabia processed normally throughout.
What you saw
Affected Mada payments were declined with response code 20091. This code means the issuer was unavailable, or that its switch was inoperative and could not authorize the payment. For what each response code means, see API response codes.
Because the issuer declined these payments, no funds were taken from your customer.
What you need to do
The issuers have completed their maintenance and restored normal service, so you can retry any affected payment as a new payment and expect it to process as usual.
If you want to confirm which of your payments were affected, contact your account manager or request support.