VyStar CU's conversion to a new online system led to customer access issues, raising questions about its investment, touted as "the largest-ever fintech funding round" made by a credit union, in digital banking partner Nymbus Inc.
The Florida Office of Financial Regulation received 13 complaints from VyStar customers about the online and mobile banking outage between May 18 and May 23, the Credit Union Times reported, citing the complaints provided to them by the regulator.
VyStar, which did not respond to requests for comment, informed its members that the system conversion was scheduled for May 13; but more than a month later, customers reported still having trouble accessing full functions in their online and mobile accounts, according to interviews and social media posts.
As of June 16, VyStar's mobile app "remains unavailable," according to its website. Functions that have been recovered in online banking include viewing account balance, recent transactions and statements, and making internal and external transfers. Per its website, VyStar also said it refunded fees to members that were charged May 14 through June 9 as a result of the conversion. VyStar CEO Brian Wolfburg told Florida news outlet News4Jax in an interview May 24 that the credit union had been making progress on the system outages and expected it to be fully functioning the following week.
VyStar's new online and mobile banking system is provided by Nymbus, a financial technology company in which Vystar has invested at least $20 million.
"VyStar Credit Union's new system is a complex, multivendor project, and we continue to actively assess the situation in partnership with the credit union's leadership team and all other vendors involved," a Nymbus spokesperson wrote in an email.
While VyStar says its online banking functions have been available since May 23, VyStar member Suzanne Tomlinson of North Florida said she had to wait in a virtual queue of thousands of other users to log into the online banking page at that time, and saw duplicated records of every recent transaction, which was inaccurate.
Another VyStar member, Charlie Taylor, said he could not transfer money online between his own accounts after the system conversion started in mid-May. Once he could log into the online banking page, the merchant names in transaction history were displayed as incomprehensible codes, making it impossible for him to validate payments online. He received VyStar's email about the planned conversion and knew that online and mobile banking functions would be affected, but the way he read it, it was planned for a weekend and he did not expect the issues to last for weeks.
While vendors take accountability in breakdowns, the institution that is an investor will also have to share the accountability, industry observers said. In this case, VyStar members were questioning the credit union's role.
"I don't think it's all on Nymbus necessarily because VyStar selected them," Tomlinson said. The accountability ultimately comes down to whoever is in charge, she added.
Payveris LLC and MX Technologies Inc. are among the other vendors involved in this project, according to a LinkedIn post published by VyStar's Senior Vice President of Digital Experience Joseph Colca over a month ago, announcing that the system conversion was ready to roll out.
But Nymbus and VyStar have established a particularly deep relationship. In October 2021, the fintech company announced a planned relocation of its corporate headquarters to where VyStar is headquartered in downtown Jacksonville, Fla., after VyStar selected Nymbus as its new online and mobile banking solution provider in July 2021. Nymbus will move into the 13th floor of VyStar's tower, the Jacksonville Daily Record reported. In April 2021, VyStar made a $20 million investment in Nymbus CUSO, to help develop the credit union service organization that Nymbus formed in March 2021.
Nymbus CUSO appointed VyStar's Colca as a board member in August 2021. VyStar's Chief Member Experience Officer Joel Swanson also sits on Nymbus' board.
The 2 sides of investments in fintech vendors
VyStar has been one of many credit unions and banks increasingly engaged in fintech investments in recent years, directly on their balance sheet or through venture capital arms. In September 2019, VyStar launched a fintech investment fund and made the fund's first investment of $2.5 million in Payveris. VyStar generated 220% in returns when Paymentus Holdings Inc. acquired Payveris in 2021 for $145.84 million, according to an article by the Credit Union National Association. Financial institutions use Payveris' technology to facilitate bill presentments, payments and other money movement.
Such investments are often bundled with commercial contracts, because working with the vendor could give the financial institution more insights about the business. They would also be more comfortable sharing proprietary information and providing strategic guidance, which could be essential for early stage fintechs to attract more customers and hone their products.
The strategic element is typically a motivation for many banks to invest in fintechs, and fintechs' being nimble in reaching customers and rolling out product features attracts banks to work with them, said Dan Allred, senior market manager for Silicon Valley Bank.
In some cases, fintechs' approach could have a mismatch to banks' core in risk management and operational stability, which leads to frictions, Allred noted.
"It's impossible to anticipate everything and protect against anything that could possibly happen. But it's the reason for trying to account for as much upfront," Allred said.
When a financial institution has a stake in its fintech vendor, it can create conflicts of interest. For instance, if the fintech breaches the contract, it is to the bank's benefit as an equity owner to waive the breach, but the bank as an injured party may want to enforce its rights, said Brad Peterson, a partner at Mayer Brown.
A company's board also carries out fiduciary duties, such as the duty of loyalty, Peterson noted. It means a bank's executive sitting on the board of a fintech is obligated to be loyal to the best interest of the fintech vendor, which may not always be aligned with that of the bank, he added.
Breakdown poses operational, reputational risks
Industry experts questioned the extended time period of the breakdown of VyStar's digital banking systems without an effective backup plan.
"Frankly, I am really puzzled. Why didn't they do a rollback?" said Ruby Walia, senior adviser for digital banking at consultancy Mobiquity. It is common for banks undergoing a system conversion to make arrangements with the previous vendor to ensure they could continue using the old system, in case the new system does not work as expected. Walia was previously an executive overseeing digital banking for HSBC in North America and TD Bank.
In an interview with First Coast News on May 20, VyStar's Swanson said VyStar was evaluating the option of a rollback "but it is not an easy or quick solution as it may seem."
The new vendor in a system conversion could also provide a second platform that is lighter and easier to implement as a backup option, said Arcady Lapiro, CEO of digital banking solutions provider Agora Services.
As consumers become increasingly digitally dependent, losing access to digital banking applications can make them feel insecure about whether their money is safe.
"I think VyStar has always had a really strong reputation of high customer service until this happened," said Taylor, a business owner who lives in Fleming Island, Fla.
Taylor and his wife have been using VyStar since 1994. The family has decided to switch to Community First CU of Florida. Without digital channels, he went to a VyStar branch and inquired about a cashier's check to move funds out of his savings account, Taylor said in an interview.
As a state-chartered and federally insured credit union, VyStar has its deposits protected by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund administered by the federal National Credit Union Administration. The NCUA and the Office of Financial Regulation in Florida are both monitoring the situation, their spokespersons said June 2.
"These things aren't unprecedented. When they happen, how the organization reacts is a defining moment for the team," Walia said.