Larry Wexler went to his local bank in St. Paul’s Highland Park on Wednesday morning to make a cash withdrawal, only to discover a sign on the door indicating the bank was temporarily closed, with no other information posted. Highland Bank’s website was of no more help, and phone calls to that and other branches ended in a kind of silent limbo, with no evidence of ringing.

“The phone call didn’t even go through to the point where it was either ringing or refused,” Wexler said. “It just sat there for a while and then stopped.”

Wexler returned to Highland Bank on Thursday, and was informed that a technology issue had impacted its branches statewide this week. Things were back and up and running, to a point. He was able to make his cash withdrawal the old-fashioned way — from a bank teller — who issued him a hand-written receipt.

On Friday morning, aspects of the Highland Bank website were still offline, and there was still no public-facing explanation on its social media accounts.

Rick Wall, the bank’s longtime chief executive officer, said Friday that a communications and information technology outage was close to being resolved and online banking was still accessible. All eight branches had been impacted by the outage.

“We had our drive-throughs open,” said Wall, reached by phone. “The lobbies were closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. The lobbies are open now. We had a communication and IT outage, and we’re still working on some details, but we’re getting close to being normal again. It’s not finished yet. When you have an outage, you restore things bit by bit. Our customers have access to all their accounts through their mobile and online services.”

Wall said he could not comment on the nature of the outage as it was bank policy not to discuss customers or security. Asked if the bank had been attacked by online hackers or ransomware, Wall said, “whether it was or wasn’t, we don’t talk about those things.”

Established in 1943, the privately held community bank specializes in small business and home equity lending and maintains branches in Blaine, Bloomington, Ely, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, St. Paul, St. Michael and Woodbury. Its corporate charter relocated within the past month from St. Michael to St. Paul, Wall said.

It acquired Boundary Waters Bank in August 2022, absorbing its Blaine, Ely and Woodbury locations and about $100 million in assets. As of late 2022, Highland Bank held approximately $750 million in assets.