Another credit union league has joined CUNA's lawsuit against Equifax, bringing the number of league plaintiffs in the suit up to five.
In a press release out today, the League of Southeastern Credit Unions and Affiliates announced that its board of directors voted during a special meeting to become a plaintiff in the suit CUNA filed against Equifax on October 4. That suit claims financial institutions have suffered and will continue to suffer financial losses and increased data security risks as a result of the credit bureau's recent massive data breach.
The Credit Union Association of New Mexico, the California-Nevada Credit Union League and the Michigan Credit Union League joined the suit earlier this month. The Illinois Credit Union League announced earlier this week that it is now a plaintiff in the suit as well.
"The extent of this breach and potential effect on credit unions and their members is unprecedented," LSCU & Affiliates President and CEO Patrick La Pine said. "The League is joining this suit as a protection measure for our affiliated credit unions and to hold Equifax accountable for negligence and the damages that will ensue. Protecting members is a top priority of all credit unions. This massive breach has the potential for negative repercussions for many years to come. The costs to credit unions will be significant."
"It's important that the League stands up for our credit unions' rights," he added.
The complaint gave more detail about the expenses that CUNA and the rest of the plaintiffs thought credit unions will have to bear.
"These costs include, but are not limited to, canceling and reissuing an untold number of compromised credit and debit cards, reimbursing customers for fraudulent charges, increasing fraudulent activity monitoring, taking appropriate action to mitigate the risk of identity theft and fraudulent loans and other banking activity, sustaining reputational harm and notifying customers of potential fraudulent activity," it claimed.
One of LSCU's member credit unions, Army Aviation Center Federal Credit Union, is also a plaintiff in the CUNA suit, as is Greater Cincinnati Credit Union.
Army Aviation Center Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Daleville, Alabama, has $1.2 billion in assets and about 98,000 members. Greater Cincinnati Credit Union is a state-chartered credit union headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Several credit unions have also filed their own suits against Equifax.
The Equifax breach, announced September 7, was first thought to affect 143 million U.S. consumers. Compromised information primarily includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and in some cases driver's license numbers. The breach also jeopardized credit card numbers for about 209,000 people, as well as dispute documents for about 182,000 consumers. A subsequent forensic investigation announced on October 2 found that an additional 2.5 million U.S. consumers were affected, bringing to the total to 145.5 million people.
LSCU includes 252 credit unions and more than 7.5 million members in Alabama and Florida, according to the press release.
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