Credit Union Times Magazine February 1, 2012

CEO Talent Pool Is Shrinking Due to Specialization

By Natasha Chilingerian

The $1.7 billion GECU of El Paso, Texas, just selected GECU Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Crystal Long to succeed President/CEO Harriet May following her retirement on March 31. Meanwhile, the $5 billion, Palo Alto, Calif.-based First Tech Credit Union is saying goodbye to President/CEO Benson Porter, who...

Lifestyle Lending Woos New Members

By Michelle A. Samaad

Deciding whether to have a tummy tuck or not would most likely not be on the list of priorities for most consumers given the economic doldrums of the last few years.

Decker Is Still Without Senate Hearing

By Claude R. Marx

Three months and still no hearing. That has been the fate so far of Carla Decker, President Obama’s nominee to succeed Gigi Hyland on the NCUA Board.

Cordray Fields Questions From House Panel

By Claude R. Marx, Jim Rubenstein

House Republicans asked tough questions of Richard Cordray about his plans for running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but the session wasn’t as hostile as it was when Elizabeth Warren testified.

BofA Is Mum on the Effects of Transfer Day

By Michelle A. Samaad

Three months after the backlash grew when Bank of America attempted to levy a monthly debit card usage fee to spawn Bank Transfer Day, the financial institution is not saying whether the nationwide effort had an impact on any account closures.

Secondary Mortgage Options Offered by New CUSO

By David Morrison

The prospect of credit unions building a stronger housing finance industry received some good news last week when a new CUSO, Mortgage Liquidity Solutions, announced its first sale of participations in CU-originated mortgage loans.

Gift Card Boom Fires Up New Exchange

By David Morrison

One indication of how deeply plastic payments have influenced the U.S. retail market has been the explosive growth in gift cards at the expense of cash, checks and other forms of plastic. Not only has the National Retail Federation reported that gift cards have effectively extended the holiday shopping season...

New Investment CUSO Formed by Fla. CU

By Michelle A. Samaad

With a diverse mix of college students, state government employees and natives who commute from neighboring smaller towns, Tallahassee, Fla., may be ripe for a new financial services alternative.

Volunteers Honored by Federation as Leadership Gap Looms

By David Morrison

Fourteen community development credit union volunteers, with collectively more than 400 years of service to their institutions and communities, have been recognized by the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions.

El Paso CU Supports the Community by Promoting Art

By David Morrison

The 45,000-member, $275 million Evolve Credit Union, formerly the El Paso Employees Federal Credit Union, has found that supporting its local community and promoting its recent name change has meant reaching out to El Paso's burgeoning art community.

Auto-Settlement May Be Left Out in the Cold

By Robert McGarvey

As discussion of the impacts of NCUA’s recent memo outlining termination dates for various services offered by U.S. Central Bridge grows in the industry, one deadline has generated heated discussion–and worries–on the part of some credit union leaders. That is auto settlement, a comparatively obscure wholesale settlement service where U.S....

Leadership Needs Abound

By Sarah Snell Cooke

The last few years have been very interesting to comment on the news and, while some things have slowed down, now is no different. Many issues from credit union management to matters in Washington continue to evolve and deserve commentary.

Volunteers Weigh Value of Performance Assessments

By Sarah Snell Cooke

MAUI, Hawaii — Whether your board is “rubber stamp” or “watchdog,” what you want it to be is a “challenger,” according to Mary Beth Spuck, CEO of The Paragon Group.

Positive Signs on the Economy

By Sarah Snell Cooke

MAUI, Hawaii — After three long years, the U.S. gross domestic product has returned to early 2008 levels, but according to Byron Gangnes, University of Hawaii economics department chair, it’s still not where it should be.

Directors Flock to Literacy Session

By Sarah Snell Cooke

MAUI, Hawaii — Volunteers attended a session at The Paragon Group’s Volunteer Leadership Institute entitled “Financial Essentials for Volunteers,” but took the session in many different directions.

Directors’ Personal Risk Not Increased, Says Attorney

By Sarah Snell Cooke

MAUI, Hawaii — Much noise was made following the NCUA’s issuance of its regulation concerning the responsibilities of federal credit unions’ boards of directors last year. But Brian Witt, partner with Farleigh Wada Witt, despite some insurance providers’ assertions, said “I don’t think your personal risk is greatly increased.”

Guest Opinion: New ALL Standards Are Coming

In case you’ve missed it, significant efforts are currently underway to align U.S. accounting practices with standards that are followed in other parts of the world (the convergence process). To accomplish this monumental task, the U.S.-based Financial Accounting Standards Board is working closely with the International Accounting Standards Board.

Cooperative Trust: PFM Offering Will Build You Up

Consumers have been conditioned to have a “what’s next?” mentality when it comes to new product launches and technology improvements. They’re often not even aware they needed the latest gizmo, but it quickly moves to something they can’t live without.

Dollar Associates to Add Recruiting

By Marc Rapport

Credit union consulting firm Dollar Associates LLC announced last week that it will add executive recruiting to its list of services offered to the credit union industry beginning in 2012.

Ventura County CU Unveils Growth Plans

VCCU’s 2011 successes included a net income of $5 million; an ROA of 0.93%; a net worth/assets ratio of 8.23%; a total assets increase to $567 million from $509 million in 2010; and a membership increase by 6,400 new members. The credit union currently employs 121 people.

Catalyst Councils Gather 24 Execs

Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union has named 24 credit union professionals to serve as members of its newly formed Catalyst Councils.

Superheroes Attack ‘Bad Banks’

Who needs Batman or Ironman when there’s the Pen Air Patrol? The new team of local superheroes has swooped into the Pensacola, Fla. area to help save locals from “greedy hands of bad banks.”

Teachers FCU Has New Headquarters Building

More than 100 guests and employees of Teachers Federal Credit Union recently participated in a grand opening celebration of the credit union’s new state-of-the-art headquarters in Hauppauge, N.Y.

Schwartz Named to NAFCU Board

Debra Schwartz, president/CEO of Mission Federal Credit Union, has been named an at-large director to NAFCU’s board of directors. Schwartz replaces outgoing board member Shelley Clarke, who stepped down when she retired as president/CEO of Goldenwest Federal Credit Union in Ogden, Utah.

Geezeo Signs Five

By Marc Rapport

Five more credit unions signed up for Geezeo’s online personal financial management solution in the final days of 2011, bringing its total for the year to more than 60, the company said.

Two Get Compliance Help

By Marc Rapport

Washington compliance specialist COMPASS 4 CUs said it has signed the $172 million Ashland CU in Ashland, Ky., and $189 million Arlington Community FCU in Arlington, Va., as new clients.

San Diego County Adds RDC

By Marc Rapport

Members of San Diego County Credit Union can now deposit checks via their Android or iPhone devices.

WESCO Net Is Rebranded

By Marc Rapport

WESCO Net is going through a name change, the network solutions integrator and division of CU*Answers is being rebranded as CU*Answers Network Services.

CU*Answers Adds Text Banking

Text banking has been added to the mobile offerings available to the approximately 190 credit unions running on the CU*BASE core processing system from CU*Answers, the Grand Rapids, Mich., CUSO said.

CU Service Signs Four CUs

CU Service Network LLC said four more client credit unions are now offering their members mobile banking through the CUSO’s arrangement with CO-OP Financial Services.

New Core Platform for CUSOs

By Marc Rapport

CU*Answers has rolled out a new core processing platform aimed at vendors and CUSOs that use multiple core platforms to service specialized member products, the Grand Rapids, Mich., CUSO said.

CMC Upgrades FLEX

By Marc Rapport

Computer Marketing Corp. has released a new version of the FLEX core processing platform used by nearly 300 credit unions, the Sandy, Utah, company said.

MDT Converts Another CU

By Marc Rapport

Member Driven Technologies said it has converted the $81 million PortAlliance Federal Credit Union in Norfolk, Va., onto the Symitar Episys core platform through the suburban Detroit CUSO’s data centers.

CO-OP Shifts to Real-Time Fraud Monitoring

By Marc Rapport

Financial transactions are increasingly happening in real time and so are the fraud attacks that naturally follow. To help fight that, CO-OP Financial Services is working this year to continue to move several hundred client credit unions to the real-time version of the widely used Falcon Fraud Manager neural network service...

Data Crunch Software Helps PSCU’s Cash Management

By Marc Rapport

Saving cash by handling cash better was just the beginning for Amanda Hamm and Public Service Credit Union. Hamm is the efficiency officer at the $1.3 billion Denver credit union, a newly created job she assumed just a few years ago. Already, she’s saving PSCU about $350,000 a year, she said,...

Guest Opinion: In Data Management, Seeing Is Believing

By Jackson Hataway

As a turbulent 2011 came to end and we plan for 2012, credit unions still face a great deal of uncertainty in the financial marketplace.

Open Solutions Does Not Share S&P’s Negative Outlook

By Marc Rapport

Open Solutions Inc.’s outlook on its immediate future differs than that of one of the leading raters of debt. While continuing its “B” corporate credit rating on the privately held core processing company, Standard & Poor’s said it has downgraded its outlook “to negative from stable, reflecting uncertainty as to the...