A longtime member of the $1.5 billion, Bakersfield, Calif.-based Kern Schools Federal Credit Union told Credit Union Times she is pulling funds out of the credit union after a system upgrade resulted in an unauthorized account access change for her family.
Bakersfield resident Eurydice Darrington said after the credit union converted to a new core processing platform over the weekend of April 30, her husband suddenly had unsolicited access to her two children's accounts online. Her efforts to resolve the issue with CU staff were unsuccessful and she's now in the process of transferring funds from her daughter's account to another credit union, she said.
Darrington said when she talked to a Kern Schools FCU service representative, she was told that her family's accounts automatically linked together by name. She is listed as a secondary user on her children's accounts and also shares separate accounts with her husband, who was not knowingly granted access to her children's accounts, she said.
"It gives my husband access to accounts he legally does not have access to," Darrington said. "It's a breach of privacy."
Kern Schools FCU's conversion from a legacy system to Fiserv Inc.'s XP2 core processing platform resulted in an outcry last week from members who claimed they could neither access their accounts nor reach service representatives for assistance.
Darrington said when she discovered the unauthorized account change last week, she tried reaching a service representative by phone but couldn't get through. She then visited a downtown branch where a service representative was of little help, and after attempting to contact the CU via email and live chat, the problem remained, she said.
"I said [to the service representative], 'Do you know how wrong this is?'" Darrington said. "No one has called me, and it's been a week."
NCUA, Fiserv and Kern Schools CEO Steve Renock assert that the CU did not experience any system or data integrity issues.
Renock told Credit Union Times Tuesday that while Kern Schools is still dealing with high call volumes, the CU is committed to "helping each member resolve any issue they may have." The CU implemented extended call center hours and an on-site personalized training program to help assist members, he said.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
