SecurCommunity Federal Credit Union’s shift to a new online and mobile banking platform has coincided with reports of members losing access to accounts and payment services in the Memphis area. The credit union says members must enroll in online banking to activate accounts on the new platform; FOX13 Memphis reported that members described trouble using debit cards, writing checks and checking balances, with problems first reported Monday and continuing for three days.
The credit union has acknowledged online banking problems during the conversion and advised members to contact it if difficulties persist after completing enrollment. The cause of the reported debit-card and account-access issues—and whether they have been resolved—remains unclear.
A separate outage shows how varied the causes can be
A useful comparison is a separate incident in Charleston, not evidence about what happened in Memphis: The Herald-Dispatch reported that an outage at CAMC Federal Credit Union began September 15 after cooling equipment failed at a third-party data center hosting its core banking provider, Sharetec. That incident disrupted online and mobile banking and debit-card processing. Its reported infrastructure cause is distinct from SecurCommunity’s still-unknown cause.
Federal guidance also makes an important distinction: the National Credit Union Administration says routine interruptions during system updates are not reportable under its cyber-incident rule, while an unexpected malfunction that significantly disrupts member access may be reportable. The rule’s 72-hour deadline applies when a federally insured credit union reasonably believes a reportable cyber incident occurred; it does not establish that SecurCommunity’s reported problems were cyber-related or reportable.
Steps members can take
For members affected by an outage, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advises checking whether automatic payments are still going through and using another payment method if they are not. Members seeking to escalate a dispute can first try to resolve it directly with the credit union, as the NCUA Consumer Assistance Center recommends; if a complaint falls within the center’s authority, it can ask the credit union to attempt resolution within 60 calendar days. The Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions says federally chartered credit unions are regulated nationally by the NCUA.
