Credit unions in recovery mode after widespread ‘network outage’ in the Prairies

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This article was published 15/11/2024 (386 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Connectivity was restored Friday afternoon following a mass credit union network outage in the Prairies late Thursday.

Payroll deposits began processing after 12:30 p.m., with some credit unions readying themselves for hours of backlogs. The outage came as customers awaited their Friday paycheques and scheduled withdrawals.

Access, Cambrian, Steinbach and Assiniboine credit unions were among the affected organizations. All use Prairie Payments Joint Venture as a service provider.

Prairie Payments, an Alberta-based company, said it experienced a “third-party network connectivity incident.” The issue affected the vendor’s systems, which trickled down to local credit unions.

Prairie Payments is a partnership among several Prairie credit unions and IBM. It counts more than 50 Prairie credit union owners and clients.

“Our first priority is to recover from the outage,” Larry Davey, president of Access Credit Union, told the Free Press in an email Friday morning. “After payments begin processing again, we will work with our partner to do an in-depth investigation into what caused the outage.”

Davey said Access will develop strategies to ensure the incident won’t be repeated. Assiniboine Credit Union echoed the promise.

Both Access and Assiniboine said they’ll reimburse anyone who incurs charges or other costs as a result of the outage.

Credit union customers expressed their frustration online; many noted they were missing pay.

Elizabeth Godlewski was among customers wondering why her pay wasn’t deposited Friday. She’s been with Access for 2 1/2 years and this is the first outage that’s affected her, she said.

“I get that they are trying their best to fix the issues,” Godlewski wrote in a Facebook message.

However, she plans to switch to a different bank.

“I can’t afford to have something like this… happen again,” she wrote.

Access posted a notice on its website Friday morning explaining that automatic internal regular scheduled payments or transfers will be retried within 24 hours, including those made through online banking.

“Once services are restored, these payments will be processed without any further delays as long as funds are available,” the notice said.

It’s unclear what caused the outage, noted Jason Kolaski, owner of computer support company Constant C Technology Group.

It could have been an internal misstep, he said. However, in the scam world, it’s common for “bad guys” to hit organizations whose operations affect many companies.

“It’s a vendor that gets compromised… that has a huge ripple effect,” Kolaski said, adding it puts more financial pressure on the victimized firm.

As credit unions merge in greater numbers, incidents affect more members than in the past, he said.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca