Four hundred thousand people across Australia are without banking services indefinitely because of floods threatening the headquarters of Credit Union Australia, in Eagle Street, Brisbane. CUA yesterday imposed a $500 daily limit on all withdrawals for any CUA customer at a rediATM or other ATM anywhere in Australia. All CUA banking services are currently being conducted offline because the CUA headquarters and central computer data centre in Eagle Street is offline because of power cuts in Brisbane's central business district and the evacuation of staff.CUA operations are being run from a crisis management centre at Eight Mile Plains, a suburb south of the city. If customers need more cash then they will have to go to a CUA branch, said Catherine Harris, spokesperson for CUA.Nine CUA branches are closed however, and 11 of CUA's rediATMs are out of action in flood-affected areas. "I can't say when banking services will be online again," said Harris. CUA's chief executive, Chris Whitehead, left just last weekend for an extended holiday with his family in Japan. This was after a hectic year culminating in the Australian government's championing of mutual banks as a "fifth pillar" of the industry. Whitehead has cut his holiday short, returning from rural Japan. Speaking from Tokyo airport, at 4pm yesterday, Whitehead said that all CUA operations were now being conducted from a crisis management centre in Eight Mile Plains outside Brisbane and so were unlikely to be affected by floodwaters. Energex cut power to the CBD, so CUA started up its back-up generator, Whitehead said."Our back-up generator was then ordered to be shut down. We would like to get another back-up generator in there and going, so we can get our banking services up again, but I can't say when that might be. "We are completely dependent on emergency services and we don't know when we will be able to get back in there." "The latest Brisbane City Council maps indicate that some parts of Eagle Street may be directly affected by rising water," said Whitehead. "At this stage it is impossible to predict what the effect on the building might be. "All customer data is absolutely safe, and is stored securely in multiple locations. We are operating according to our crisis management plan." Call centres in Melbourne and Sydney are still taking calls from customers. Water levels are below the Eagle Street premises and are not expected to threaten the building itself. Nine CUA branches - Eagle Street, Toowoomba, Broadway on The Mall, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Springfield, Indooroopilly, Toobul, Caloundra and Maroochydore are closed. All other CUA branches, in northern NSW and around Australia, are currently trading as usual and can conduct offline transactions if members need more than $500 in cash.