With many clients unable to deposit cheques or access their accounts online, one expert says the bank may face serious repercussions even after the technological problems are resolved.

"Technical and technological issues happen. Now this is on a bigger scale because this is people's livelihoods," said Omar Fares, lecturer on retail management at Toronto Metropolitan University. 

"Given the trajectory of where things are going, there may be a hit on UNI and customers' trust will take time [to rebuild]."

The Acadian bank has been experiencing technical challenges since separating from Desjardins Group to launch its own online banking platform. Some customers discovered their most recent pay didn't arrive in their accounts, something UNI described in an update Sunday as "payroll deferral."

UNI CEO Robert Moreau said some crucial improvements will be made as quickly as possible, such as making it possible to make a bill payment at an ATM.

"I can assure you that we will work tirelessly, 24 hours a day, to correct these irritants," said Moreau.

Despite the technical challenges, 68,000 people have registered an online profile with the bank.

Fares said this does not come as a surprise.

Credit unions a community

"With a credit union, there is such a community focus … so clients are in a sense a little bit more forgiving than traditional banking institutions."

However, Fares said UNI should be giving customers daily updates to avoid further frustrations and distrust.

"Your customers will make assumptions, right?" Fares said. "'Why did the system drop?''Was there any data leakage?' These are issues if the bank does not bring up proactively, it will be in terms brought up from the customer side."

Fares said once UNI's online banking platform is finally up and running, the bank will have to try to make up for frustrations their clients experienced.

"It takes a very long time to build trust and we've seen it takes a few days and a technological issue to destroy the trust," said Fares.

Some GNB employees affected

It's unclear how many people have been hit by issues with UNI Financial Cooperation's services, but the Government of New Brunswick says some of its employees were affected.

David Kelly, spokesperson for the Finance and Treasury Board, in an email said "bank files have transferred" to UNI without error.

"We have, however, received phone calls this morning from a small number of Government of New Brunswick employees experiencing issues and have encouraged them to reach out directly to UNI to resolve."

LeBreton Fisheries and Sons Ltd., a seafood company in Grand-Anse, released an advisory to its employees on Facebook Thursday morning regarding their pay.

"If you are with the UNI financial institution, you probably did not receive your pay this morning like most of their members," said the company, in its online post.

"To our understanding, this is not unique to our company, it is a general problem at UNI. We are in contact with UNI service and will update you as soon as possible."

CBC News contacted LeBreton Fisheries by phone Thursday and an employee declined an interview request.

After years of relying on Desjardins Group for its online banking platform, the company decided to launch its own, CEO Robert Moreau, said in an interview.

About 155,000 customers were supposed to transition to the new platform on July 6, but bumps in the process led to problems for customers across the province, with cards not working and people not being able to access their online accounts.

UNI Financial Cooperation CEO Robert Moreau says the company is dealing with issues as they're brought to their attention, and has extended business hours at its branches to better help customers. (Zoom/CBC)

"It could be very technical on the card itself," Moreau said. "It can be that [with] the personal identification number, they don't have it, they lost it or it's not working properly," Moreau said.

Moreau said not all customers are experiencing those issues, adding that "most transactions" are happening properly across its system.

Moreau didn't offer a timeline for addressing issues for affected customers, noting that UNI is learning about some problems only as clients come forward with them.

"Some of it, you deal [with it] as it comes," he said. "Then you get into efficiency, so if we see ... too many of a certain complaint then we we get to address that."

He said for those experiencing problems, the company responded by opening its branches last weekend, and extending the opening hours for its branches throughout this week as well.

"Come and see us and and we will help you out. There's no, there's no question about it," Moreau said.

"We'll make sure that your deposits are done. We'll make sure that your withdrawals are done. We'll make sure that your payments are done."

Renee Bourgoin decided to do just that on Wednesday.

Renee Bourgoin showed up at the UNI branch in Fredericton after UNI failed to send her the access code she needed to get into her online account. (Pat Richard/CBC)

She said she was supposed to receive information in the mail to give her access to her online account under the new platform.

That mail came, but without the access codes she needed.

"I didn't have access to my finances and my banking information," Bourgoin said.

"I came in last week, they were able to help me out in the interim, which was really helpful, but it's still a little alarming to not be able to access the information in your accounts."

Bourgoin said she got what she needed from her visit to the branch on Wednesday, and the issue should be sorted out.

"The staff have been incredible, incredibly helpful."

One of New Brunswick's biggest credit unions is in trouble because of bad loans.

Directors of the Caisse Populaire de Shippagan have asked for help from the province's credit union stabilization board.

That comes as the Caisse tries to deal with a portfolio of commercial loans that aren't being repaid.

Bank officials say the situation doesn't mean members will lose their money.

The Shippagan Credit Union controls about $300 million in assets. It has about 36,000 members, and more than 100 employees in northern New Brunswick.

Shippagan Credit Union is not part of the Federation des caisses populaires acadiennes and ceased being a member more than 23 years ago.

New Brunswick's Opposition leader is warning that the province's credit rating could be damaged by a possible $60-million bailout of the Caisse Populaire de Shippagan.

The Liberal government is granting $31.5 million to help the francophone credit union's debt, caused by a series of bad loans over four years. The province is investing $10 million more in repayable shares, and another $19 million to stabilize deposit insurance for New Brunswick credit unions and caisses.

The $60 million, equal to the caisse's individual debt was earmarked in the government's first budget,earlier this month, as money for the province's anglophone and francophone credit union systems, as a maximum amount to stabilize the Shippagan caisse. The budget also included a personal income tax hike that will result in a further $50 million for the government.

In the Legislature Tuesday, Opposition leader and former finance minister Jeannot Volpé condemned the deal, drawing a link between the $60 million set aside for credit unions and the $50 million to be generated by personal income tax.

The province insists it had no other option, because the former Tory government did nothing to resolve the situation, and taxpayers were on the hook for $85 million if the credit union failed.

Volpé says his government tried to help the caisse through loans, not grants. He says the grant opens a door that hasn't been opened before, and the federal government's credit rating agency will be paying close attention.

"The credit rating agency will even look at it because we've opened the door, we've given a huge grant to someone doing business in New Brunswick," he said. "What's next? The banks? What's next, the pension funds maybe that are unfunded? They've opened that door that was not opened before."

However, Justice and Consumer Affairs Minister T.J. Burke says the former government has to take the blame for the problem of the caisse, which has been "bubbling over," he said, since 2004.

But the Tories say they were pursuing a solution that was much cheaper to taxpayers. Tory MLA for Riverview and former minister of justice and consumer affairs Bruce Fitch says the former government's plan involved a $30-million repayable loan.

Fitch says the Conservatives tried to fix the problems with the struggling Caisse, and he says the price tag on their solution would have cost less than $2 million. However, the Conservatives never struck that deal.

"They did nothing," Burke said. "They didn't have an annual general meeting, which was required by law. They ended up getting exemptions under the act, so that it didn't have to take place, so the members of the credit union couldn't see the audited financial statements at year's end. They didn't appoint a superintendent of credit unions until August of last year."

That superintendent, Robert Penney, says he plans to toughen up the Credit Unions Act.

"The teeth would be in the regulatory process, in terms of improving the appeal and oversight process, to make the impact of negative inspections immediate," he said Tuesday.

With the Opposition leader drawing a link between the credit union bailout and the Graham government's raising an extra $50 million from personal income tax hikes, the stage seems set for a continuing political war over who is to blame for the $60-million bill.

Consumer Affairs Minister T.J. Burke is defending his government's $31.5 million bailout of a struggling credit union, saying it would be more expensive for New Brunswick if the financial institution folded.

"Had we not intervened, the Caisse Populaire de Shippagan may have had to face the possibility of liquidation, which could potentially have cost the taxpayers of New Brunswick in excess of $85 million," he said Monday.

The Liberal government's first budget, which came down this month, earmarked a possible $60 million to help stabilize New Brunswick's Credit Union system, and a maximum amount to stabilize the troubled Shippagan institution, which has lost $60 million over the past four years.

New Brunswick's superintendent of credit unions, Robert Penney, broke down the details of the funding Monday.

He said the governmentwill grant $31.5 million to the New Brunswick Credit Union DepositInsurance Corp., which will give the money to the stabilization board ofthe Fédération des caisse populaires acadiennes. The stabilization board will in turn grant it to the caisse.

Penneyalso said the province will grant another $18.5 million to the deposit insurance corporation, as a kind of life insurance for the credit union system.

Burke said the bailout was needed because legislation enacted under the previous Conservative government holds the province responsible for 100 per cent of all deposits if a credit union goes under.

The Liberals plan to introduce new legislation to change that, he said.

The Caisse Populaire in Shippagan will receive the government money June 1, when it will move from the anglophone Credit Union Central of New Brunswick federation back to the francophone federation, which it left after a dispute in the early 1980s.

The New Brunswick government has set aside up to $60 million to save Shippagan's financially strapped credit union but a taxpayer advocacy group suggests the Liberals should be spending the money "in priority areas."

The Caisses Populaire de Shippagan, which has been in financial trouble for the past three years, was placed under the control of the Central Credit Union of New Brunswick's risk management board in 2004 after a series of commercial loans were not repaid.

Last week, the Liberal government announced its plan to return the caisse to the security of the Fédération des caisses populaires acadiennes, more than 20 years after the two separated and the caisse joined the anglophone Central Credit Union of New Brunswick. However, the government didn't give financial details.

Finance Minister Victor Boudreau said that $60 million in Tuesday's budget is going to the stabilization board and the Central Credit Union of New Brunswick's risk management board, as a maximum amount to stabilize the troubled credit union.

Boudreau wouldn't say how much of that $60 million will be injected into Shippagan's credit union or whether it's a grant, a loan or a loan guarantee. However, he has said the credit union's future depends on it.

John Williamson from the Canadian Taxpayer Federation said New Brunswickers should pay close attention to the $60 million set aside, because it's roughly the same amount they'll be paying in tax increases in 2007.

"I'd want to know why taxes are going up to pay for bailouts, as opposed to having governments spend money in priority areas," Williamson said Thursday.

"Governing is all about making choices and prioritizing spending. In this case, we have a government which has obviously decided that saving a credit union is worthwhile, despite the fact that no one from the province seems able to explain why it's in the province's interest, or why it's in the taxpayer's interest, to be spending this kind of money."

Opposition critic Bruce Fitch said he wants details now on how the province plans to save the credit union. "Sixty million dollars is a substantial amount of money and I'd like to know exactly what it is going to be used for," he said.

The province will release exact dollar amounts at a meeting with the Caisse de Shippagan on March 26.

Camille Theriault of the Fédération des caisses populaires acadiennes said that ignoring the struggling credit union was not really an option for government.

"What would happen is that the government would have to liquidate the Caisse Populaire de Shippagan and my impression is that that would be a lot more expensive than looking at the funds that would be involved in the rehabilitation of the Caisse Populaire de Shippagan," Theriault said.

The Shippagan caisse split with its Acadian counterparts in 1982 over a difference of opinion. It joined forces with the anglophone Central Credit Union of New Brunswick.

The Caisse de Shippagan is set to rejoin the federation in June.

The New Brunswick government has asked the RCMP to launch a criminal investigation into the troubled Caisse Populaire de Shippagan.

Attorney General T.J. Burke said Wednesday there may have been "improprieties" at the caisse.

Last month the province announced a $60-million grant to sort out the credit union industry in the province, and more than half of that was togo to bail out the Shippagan caisse.

Ever since that announcement, the Opposition Conservatives have been hammering the government, saying the money should have been a loan, not a grant.

In return, the Liberals said the Tories knew problems were building up when they were in power; the caisse first started to see financial trouble in 2004, as the result of a series of bad loans.

Today, Burke took the controversy a step further, announcing he'd called in the RCMP to help answer questions about how the previous management ran the caisse, and got it so deep into debt.

"There is a possibility that there has been some impropriety with respect to large transactions coming into a financial institution and coming out so quickly."

He said the Tories may not like what the investigation turns up.

"As we peel the layers of this onion, the smell of it is just getting stronger and stronger."

Last month, Burke suggested a relative of Tory MLA Paul Robichaud was on the board of the caisse, and that Tory attacks on the bailout were meant to "protect" that relative.

Wednesday, Robichaud said,"I welcome the investigation. We're not against the investigation."

But his leader, Jeannot Volpé, said the government is calling in the police to distract the public from the controversy over the grant.

Meanwhile, Burke has also asked the auditor general to look into the caisse's troubled history.

Jeannot Volpé apologized Friday, after New Brunswick's superintendent of credit unions accused the Tory Opposition leader of threatening him while discussing the Caisse Populaire de Shippagan earlier in the week.

"Because of the importance I place on personal integrity, I wish to apologize this morning if anything I said during that meeting offended anyone in the provincial civil service or made an official feel pressured," Volpé said in Friday's legislature.

"That was not my intention, and that's not the way I conduct myself as an MLA or as leader of the opposition."

Volpé made the comment in question while meeting with Robert Penney, the superintendent of credit unions. The politician was angry about Penney's suggestion that, when Volpé was a cabinet minister, he had been warned about potential irregularities at the Caisse Populaire de Shippagan.

In a transcript of the meeting released Thursday,Volpé is recorded as saying to Penney: "I will not let my name go in the dirt. If there is something in life that I said is important to me, it's integrity, so it will not go down, or a lot of people will go down with me, so it has to be fixed."

"I will be quite frank," Penney replied. "That sounds threatening in tone."

"That is just my way. All I am saying here is something is happening here that is not good," Volpé said.

The controversy follows the Liberal government's decision to give the financially troubled Caisse a $41-million bailout.

Attorney General T.J. Burke announced last week that the RCMP had been asked to look into why the Caisse lost so much money.

Journalists were told that the Mounties would be looking for red flags such as large deposits coming from outside the normal business area that might point to money laundering.

Volpé has demanded Burke resign over his comments, saying he prejudged a police investigation by suggesting police might find evidence of money laundering in the case.

Volpé also accused the government of releasing the transcript in a bid to distract the public from Burke's comments.

The transcript has Penney confirming he never used the words "money laundering" or "red flags" when he met with Volpé about the Caisse's situation in 2006.

The former Tory government in New Brunswick was asked to crack down on the Caisse Populaire de Shippagan 15 months before action was finally taken, according to an affidavit obtained by CBC News.

Last month, the province announced a $60-million grant to sort out the credit union industry in the province, and $41 million of it went to bailing out the Shippagan caisse, which had a debt of about $60 million. Ever since that announcement, the Opposition Conservatives have been hammering the government, saying the money should have been a loan, not a grant.

In return, the Liberals said the Tories knew problems were building up when they were in power. The caisse first started to see financial trouble in 2004, as the result of a series of bad loans.

The delay in putting the caisse under supervision, revealed in the affidavit,also delayed efforts by an industry stabilization board to force the caisse to change the way it does business.

In 2002 the caisse in Shippagan was part of the anglophone Credit Union Central of New Brunswick and came under the authority of the Credit Union Central stabilization board and fund.

The board's administrators were increasingly concerned with the caisse's aggressive business practices, and the financial risks they created.

Following an audit, the board gave the caisse a list of 10 orders to comply with, but the caisse fought those orders in court.

What happened next is explained in an affidavit by Darrell Kuhn, the CEO of Credit Union Central.

In March 2003, Kuhn asked the province's acting superintendent of credit unions, Suzanne Bonnell-Burley, to put the Shippagan caisse under supervision. That would give the board the power to force the caisse to comply with its orders.

"By way of letter dated March 21, 2003, the [Credit Union Stabilization Fund] requested supervisory powers from the superintendent," the affidavit reads.

According to Kuhn's affidavit, the provincial superintendent never responded in writing to the request.

"Although the CUSF requested a formal response in writing by March 31, 2003, the Superintendent has never provided any written response to the request for supervisory powers."

It was another15 months before the Shippagan Caisse was finally put under supervision in June 2004, and forced to hire new management and change its business practices.

It's not clear from the court affidavit whether that delay added to the caisse's losses — losses that eventually led to last month's $41-million government bailout.

A Moncton-based caisse populaire ran up a $5 million deficit last year, the latest hit to New Brunswick's francophone credit union system, but an expert says the recent trouble doesn't make credit unions less reliable than banks.

The Caisse Populaire de Shippaganmade headlines recently when the province agreed to give it a $41 million bailout. Now, the Caisse Populaire Beauséjour has released data showing it is more than $5 million in debt due to bad loans.

Camille Thériault of the Fédération des caisses populaires acadiennes announced Monday the problem was discovered during the regular 18-month audits of the caisse.

Université de Moncton co-op management specialist André Leclerc says some bank branches may have just as many problems, but don't tell the public about them.

"For the banks, we don't have any information at the branch level, but that doesn't mean they don't have financial problems," Leclerc said Tuesday.

"If a branch has financial problems in a bank, it will be covered by all the networks. So, the network is making lots of profits, but that doesn't mean there is no branch [without] financial problems."

The Moncton caisse was put under trusteeship at the beginning of the year, and Thériault said the federation is considering shortening the time between audits to every 12 months. Thériault said the caisse will follow up on all loans that are in default.