A data center cooling failure has disrupted online and mobile banking for customers at several Central Illinois credit unions for the past three days, part of a nationwide problem.
The incident began Tuesday, impacting the Illinois State Credit Union, the Credit Union For All in Bloomington, the Streator Community Credit Union, and many others across the U.S. that use the same vendor Sharetec for core-processing services. Several credit unions said Saturday that their systems were finally coming back online, although not all services are yet available.
"The scale of this disruption was unprecedented for us," said Thom Ewen, CEO at Illinois State Credit Union, which communicated extensively with its customers [members] throughout the week. "From about 11 a.m. Tuesday until 2 a.m. Saturday, we were without access to nearly all of our core banking systems. Several other credit unions in town were hit as well."
Sharetec experienced a “service disruption related to a data center cooling failure,” Illinois State Credit Union told customers. The credit union and others stressed that “no data breach or unauthorized access to member data [was] identified.” The Credit Union for All made similar assurances.
"It's amazing how reliant we've all become on our computers and phones for daily life," Ewen told WGLT. "Our communication plan focused on easing members' concerns and fears."
Illinois State Credit Union said it decided about 18 months ago to move away from Sharetec in favor of another core processing vendor, starting in January 2027 — a move that’s “designed to improve member service and significantly reduce the risk of this kind of disruption going forward.”
“While that timeline unfortunately doesn't help resolve today's outage, it reflects a decision made well before this incident to strengthen the stability of the systems you depend on,” the credit union told customers.
What worked, what didn't
At some credit unions, online and mobile banking was unavailable, although debit and credit cards continued to work normally during this week’s prolonged outage.
"Debit cards, automatic payments, and direct deposits all processed as usual. What we lost was the software that let us humans see balances and do transactions, both in the lobby and through mobile banking," Ewen said.
Illinois State Credit Union said customers will be able to “request reimbursement consideration for fees incurred with outside companies as a result of this outage.” On Sunday afternoon, the credit union said it has returned all fees incurred Tuesday through Friday and pledged to return all fees accrued from the weekend on Monday.
Credit Union for All made a similar pledge to cover or reimburse “any incurred late fees or overdraft fees due to this outage,” after filling out a form requesting it.
Credit Union for All said early Saturday that its “core was brought back online.”
“Our team is working early this morning to verify transactions and ensure account accuracy for all members. Transactions will be posted in the order they were received,” the credit union said. “While our core functionality has been restored, online banking remains offline. Sharetec’s goal was to restore core systems to all credit unions before moving on to online banking. At this time, we do not have a timeline as to when online banking will be restored.”
Credit unions are similar to banks, though they are typically not-for-profit and owned by their own customers, or “members,” which is different than a traditional bank.
"Now that we're mostly through this, our next task is regaining the full trust of our membership," Ewen said.
