Credit unions and mutual banks tied to Cuscal are having a hectic week as the changeover to a new payments switch presents a series of challenges. Cuscal duplicated many Visa transactions on at least three occasions this week. Some credit union customers are also experiencing extended delays with ATM transactions. People's Choice Credit Union in South Australia, Police & Nurses Mutual Banking in Western Australia, QT Mutual Bank and MyState Financial in Tasmania were among credit unions to publish apologies on their websites this week over the issues. Issues cited in customer advisories included the loss of functionality of debit cards with PINs longer than four digits, and problems using Visa Debit cards and Redicards. The bulk of credit unions and mutual banks that rely on Cuscal for payments switching, ATM support and other services are now receiving these services directly from the credit union-owned service provider rather than through the industry's long-time supplier, First Data. Last year, Cuscal installed its own switch (licensed from Alaric), which until recently was used mainly to drive ATMs. Other banks (mainly the majors) that "acquire" payment transactions through their Eftpos services for merchants redirected traffic from First Data to MasterCard-owned Strategic Payments Services last weekend; Cuscal is using the latter for bilateral connections to the rest of the banking market. Incidents in the routine operations of retail payments system are attracting closer scrutiny from banking regulators. Cuscal did not respond to requests for a comment for this article.