Restored Service for Credit Unions Across Prairies Ends Hours of Delay for Automatic Deposits, Payments

A person inserts a debit card into an ATM in a file photo. Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo

A network outage struck credit unions across the prairies on Nov. 15, delaying automatic deposits and payments for customers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba for several hours.

Several credit unions across the three provinces issued advisories on their websites about the early morning outage, but most were reporting restored service by early afternoon.

Manitoba

The advisory for Access Credit Union in Manitoba said the vendor supplying payment services to most credit unions in the Prairies encountered a network issue early Nov. 15. That issue  resulted in a delay of automatic deposits and automated withdrawal of funds for loan payments, the notice said.

The credit union, which has more than 200,000 customers in Winnipeg and Southern Manitoba, said payments had begun processing again as of 12:45 p.m.

“These payments will be processed without any further delays as long as funds are available,” Access Credit Union said. “If you have incurred any NSF charges (or other costs) associated with this outage, please reach out to us for reimbursement.”

Assiniboine Credit Union in Winnipeg issued a similar advisory on its website, saying clients affected by the network outage will not face any fees or penalties because of the delay. An afternoon update to the advisory said connectivity had been restored.

“You can expect deposits and payments to begin processing this afternoon,” it said.

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan’s Affinity Credit Union also posted about the outage, saying the network connectivity issue had delayed direct deposits and cheque clearing. Wires were also unavailable, the notice said.

An update said delayed direct deposits were being credited to member accounts over “the next few hours.”

Conexus issued a similar statement, adding that the credit union would absorb the cost of any fees associated with the glitch.

“We can now confirm the hardware issue has been fixed and that payments are processing,” Conexus said. “Members will start to see payments in their accounts, and the processing will continue until all payments are made today.”

Alberta

Servus, Alberta’s largest credit union, announced via social media that direct deposits to and from accounts were delayed. It announced the issue was fixed in a subsequent post and promised all scheduled transactions would be processed “later today.” It also promised to cover any fees incurred.

ABCU Credit Union said it was unaffected by the outage because it uses a different service provider, but warned customers’ payments from an impacted credit union would likely be delayed.

“Rest assured, no late fees or penalties will be charged by ABCU Credit Union as a result of this disruption,” the credit union said.