Sharetec Outage Knocks Credit Unions Offline Across Multiple States
By CU Today Staff —
FORT WAYNE, Ind.--A major outage at credit union core processor Sharetec has knocked multiple credit unions offline, disrupting online and mobile banking and leaving some credit union employees unable to access member accounts after equipment was damaged following a cooling-system failure at a data center.
The disruption began Sept. 15 and restoration efforts were continuing Thursday, reports indicate.
Auburn Community Federal Credit Union said Sharetec reported Wednesday night that more than 40% of affected credit unions had been restored to their core systems, with technical teams working overnight on the remainder. Sharetec’s goal at that point was to restore all affected credit unions within 12 to 18 hours, although Auburn Community FCU said it had not received a specific restoration time for its own systems.
The failure has affected credit unions in multiple states. Municipal Employees Credit Union in Oklahoma City said Sharetec suffered a “significant infrastructure failure” at the data center hosting its systems after a cooling-system failure damaged equipment. Wayne County Community Federal Credit Union said the outage began around noon Sept. 15 and was affecting “many other credit unions” using the same banking system.
The impact on members varies by institution. Pompano Beach City Employees Credit Union in Florida said debit card purchases remained available up to $500 per day, subject to balances and card-network limitations. Auburn Community FCU said online and mobile banking were unavailable and its employees could not access account information during the outage, while Chicago Fireman’s Association Credit Union posted a prominent notice telling members its banking system was down because of a Sharetec “data system malfunction.”
Credit unions stressed that the incident has not been identified as a cyberattack or data breach. Auburn Community FCU said Sharetec confirmed there had been no unauthorized access to member information, while MECU similarly said the problem was a data center infrastructure failure rather than a security incident. Credit unions also said there was no indication that incoming direct deposits had been lost, although access to those funds and other transactions could be affected while systems remain unavailable.
Sharetec, based in Fort Wayne, Ind., provides core processing and digital banking technology for credit unions and says its community includes more than 280 credit unions.
Originally reported by CU Today.