[ad_1]
The 50,000 members of Capital Credit Union in Dublin were locked out of their online accounts after the lender moved to a new banking system.
There are fears that the credit union could now be fined by the Central Bank, which in the past has sanctioned banks that suffered IT outages.
The Dundrum-headquartered credit union, which has several branches across south Dublin, has contacted its members to apologise for “issues that have impacted” its services.
Chief executive Pat Byrne said in a statement: “During a planned change to our banking system, the credit union encountered unforeseen technical difficulties that impacted our services for a number of days.”
The outage occurred at the end of last month, forcing the credit union to revert to its original banking system.
The online services had now been fully restored, he said, and regulators were now probing the service outage.
“We endeavoured to keep those members who were impacted fully informed during the disruption,” he said.
Asked whether there was a likelihood of a fine from the Central Bank over the service disruption, Mr Byrne said: “The matter is currently under review, so we can’t say any more at the moment. Once the review is complete, we will be in touch with members.”
He said Capital Credit Union was engaging with the Central Bank on the issue.
The Central Bank said it was aware of the situation.
“Operational resilience is of paramount importance to the Central Bank and we expect all firms to have adequate systems and controls in place to ensure operational resilience,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The statement added that where issues that affect members arose, they should be addressed and rectified as soon as possible, with clear and timely communications.
“Our supervisory engagement with the credit union continues in relation to this matter,” the Central Bank said.
In an email to members, Mr Byrne apologised.
“As a credit union, your experience with us, as a member, is our absolute priority. We know that recent events have resulted in a reduced service to our members that fell far short, and we will be conducting a full review into the matter,” members were told.
He said that in future, Capital would work with its system-provider to offer a range of new services to its members.
Capital Credit Union was created following the merger of Capital, Francis Street and St Kevin’s credit unions. The tie-up in 2018 meant that the combined entity has around 50,000 members.
Before this, Capital had already taken over a string of other credit unions, including the UCD staff operation, along with Knocklyon, Sandymount and Drimnagh.
The enlarged Capital is one of the largest community credit unions in the State with assets of close to €300m.
It offers loans, insurance, mortgages and financial planning, among other services.
[ad_2]
Source link
