‘Serious security incident’ at Patelco Credit Union paralyzes banking services for nearly half a million members

Nearly half a million members of Patelco Credit Union, with branches throughout the Bay Area and Northern California, were left without access to banking services after what the CEO called a “major security incident” over the weekend.

The Dublin, Alameda County-based credit union made the announcement at 7 a.m., saying its services were unavailable, including online banking, mobile app, direct deposits, wire transfers, and debit and credit card transactions.

Patelco members received an email from President and CEO Erin Mendez about the security incident, but details of the incident were not disclosed.

As of 11:30 a.m. on Monday, the Patelco website was still down.

The email said the credit union is working with cybersecurity experts to assess the situation and restore services. Mendez also said an estimated restoration time is unknown.

Patelco is the 27th largest credit union in the country, with $9.8 billion in assets and 455,000 members with more than 1 million accounts. The nonprofit credit union has 37 branches in the Bay Area and the Sacramento area. It is one of the oldest credit unions in the United States, founded in 1936 for employees of the former Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, now AT&T.