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, 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.
“Our system is back up! Home and mobile banking are both up. We realize not all transactions over the past few days are showing in online banking. Our team will be working hard to process items on our end to reflect the most up-to-date balance in your account,” Illinois State Credit Union CEO Thom Ewen said in a statement to customers early Saturday.
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.” 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.
At some of the credit unions, online and mobile banking was unavailable, although debit and credit cards continued to work normally during this week’s prolonged outage.
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.”
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.
