February 19, 2021
This week, Dane County Credit Union experienced an unforeseen and unfortunate situation like never before. It negatively impacted our online banking members by disrupting access to their accounts, ultimately weakening the revered trust placed in our organization. I would like to personally extend my sincere apologies to all members who were affected. We humbly request the opportunity to begin rebuilding your trust however possible.
We understand that our digital channels are vital member resources, relied on daily, to manage finances. Although confidential member information was never at risk, the extended outage was a serious matter that we do not take lightly.
Our provider, one of the largest vendors in our industry, services many financial institutions across the nation. They are headquartered in the greater Milwaukee area and house their data center in Texas where well-publicized unusual and severe weather caused widespread power outages. This caused their main system to go down which initiated their disaster recovery plan. These efforts included back-up procedures and relocation of services to other geographical areas in the country. When deploying the alternative back up sites, they, unfortunately, experienced additional issues, which lead to the unexpected multi-day interruption our members experienced.
This outage is totally unacceptable, and we are holding them accountable. In addition, we are evaluating many procedures and risk management parameters within our credit union to avoid another similar situation in the future.
Once again, I deeply apologize for the major inconvenience to our members. Please check your accounts and contact us as soon as possible for assistance on any resulting account issues this outage may have caused. We truly appreciate your membership and thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
Shay Santos
President/CEO
