Patelco CU reports “serious security incident”

Dublin, California-based Patelco Credit Union, a $9.7 billion business, suffered a “serious security incident” Saturday, President and CEO Erin Mendez said after receiving numerous complaints from members.

“This has required us to close portions of our day-to-day banking systems so we can fix the issue and mitigate its impact, including online banking, our mobile app, and our customer service call center,” Mendez wrote in an email to members. “Currently, electronic transactions such as wire transfers (including Zelle), direct deposits, balance inquiries, and payments are unavailable. Debit and credit card transactions are limited.”

A community member posted the email on Sunday.

The credit union said its branches, customer service call centre and live chat will be open and ready to assist as much as possible during standard business hours starting today, and longer than usual wait times should be expected.

“We will answer your questions to the best of our ability, but at this time we cannot provide specific information about your accounts. We will provide further updates as they become available,” Patelco wrote in a social media post. “We know this is a concerning situation and we are committed to keeping you informed as the investigation progresses.”

In a post on Sunday afternoon, Patelco said its teams are working around the clock with top cybersecurity experts to assess the situation and restore service to members.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to provide an estimated time when these systems will be operating as expected,” the credit union said.

In an update posted late Sunday evening, the credit union said its teams were still working to fix the outage.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this incident has caused,” Patelco wrote on its website.

The cooperative credit union operates from 37 branches and serves over 500,000 members.

Patelco did not say how many accounts may have been affected by this security incident or whether any accounts were compromised.