The credit union industry's largest national trade association, CUNA, announced Friday that it plans to file a lawsuit against Equifax over the credit bureau's massive data breach.

"Equifax needs to be held accountable for this massive data breach that gave hackers access to the personally identifiable information of 143 million Americans and the credit card information of 209,000 people," CUNA president and CEO Jim Nussle said in a statement. "Equifax's disregard for protecting this highly sensitive data means credit unions are left bearing the brunt for damages in replacing members' cards payment cards, covering fraudulent purchases and taking protective measures to reduce risk of identity theft and false loans." 

CUNA said credit unions and other financial institutions will likely have to shoulder these costs over the long term. They will also suffer reputational harm and have to bear the burden of notifying consumers of potential fraudulent activity, it added.