Credit Union Times Magazine January 26, 2011

Robbers Often Strike at the Same Branch Multiple Times

By David Morrison

The $1.4 billion Ascend Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Tullahoma, Tenn., made headlines when one of its branches was robbed three times in three weeks.

Matz Prods Congress on Supplemental Capital

By Claude R. Marx

If a journey of 1,000 miles does begin with one step, then NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz's letter to Congress on supplemental capital could be the beginning of a long trip.

Western Bridge Corporate Offers Strategic Planning Pointers

By Robert McGarvey

"We are helping credit unions to survive during tough times," said Amy Rapp, a senior manager at Western Bridge Corporate Federal Credit Union.

Pentagon FCU Suffers Security Breach

By David Morrison

An unknown number of the third largest credit union's members were put at risk of identity theft after the CU had its security breached by a program carried on an infected laptop.

CUNA Issues Exam Guide

By Claude R. Marx

Many credit unions see examinations as necessarily evils. CUNA is hoping to make the process more tolerable and fair.

NACUSO Protests NCUA Guidance on Nondeposit Investments

By Michelle A. Samaad

Third-party brokerage arrangements for the sale of nondeposit investment products outlined in a recent NCUA guidance letter contain duties some federal credit unions may not have the ability to perform.

Corporate's December Report Inflates Inflation Worries

By Robert McGarvey

The stark words jumped off the page of the report. "Consumer inflation rose 0.5% in December, the highest monthly gain since June 2009," according to an advisory prepared by Brian Turner of Southwest Corporate Investment Services in Plano, Texas.

Lending Exchange Brings Loan Buyers, Sellers Together

By Michelle A. Samaad

An online marketplace that connects financial institutions looking to purchase loans with those who are selling loans is the premise behind BP Connect, a new venture from Business Partners LLC, a business lending CUSO.

Michigan CU Merger Is Alliance Builder

By Michelle A. Samaad

Given their respective CUSO alliances, Affinity Group Credit Union and Kensington Valley Community Credit Union said their recent plan to merge is another example of collaboration.

Rockland FCU Climbs From Conservatorship to Billionaire's Club

By Eileen Courter

When Thomas White moved into the CEO's office at Rockland Federal Credit Union in 1994, some people might have questioned his decision to take on the job.

Verbatim

The Jan. 15 issue of The New York Times published an article by Gretchen Morgenson ("Arbitration, Litigation, Aggravation") about a complaint filed by a trust set by Helen Cohen involving an investment account Cohen opened before her death.

It's No Time for Rudeness

By Claude R. Marx

As credit union executives prepare to come to Washington next month to lobby Congress, here's a gentle reminder: Mind your manners.

Xtend CUSO Handles 3,000 Mortgages

Xtend Inc. is marking the end of its third year of providing back-office service to credit union mortgage loans by reaching the 3,000 mark in the number of supported loans, according to the Grand Rapids, Mich., CUSO.

Alaska USA Named State's Top 504 Lender

For the second year in a row, the $4.3 billion Alaska USA Federal Credit Union has been recognized as Alaska's 2010 SBA 504 Lender of the Year.

Widow's Failed Brokerage Account Causes Finger Pointing

By Michelle A. Samaad

The $21 billion State Employees' Credit Union is in the middle of a legal quandary involving a widow who opened up a failed brokerage account with a defunct, credit union-formed broker-dealer and investment firm.

Directors' Literacy Training Programs Draw Thousands

By Jim Rubenstein

Volunteer compliance with new NCUA rules on financial literacy, which become effective this Thursday, has generated a new round of training and education programming across the U.S. One CUNA audio session last week drew 2,000 participants.

California CUs Complete Merger

The $1.5 billion Chevron Federal Credit Union is expanding its sponsor niche this month by merging with the ailing $5.9 million Star Energy CU of Bakersfield, Calif.

Lloyd Gill Named CEO at City County CU

City County Credit Union has named Executive Vice President/Chief Operations Officer Lloyd Gill as its new president/CEO.

Boomers in Canada Report Mixed Outlook on Retirement

A new survey revealed while baby boomers in Canada may have unrealistic hopes about how much they can save in the few years before they retire, many are still optimistic about their personal financial situation.

Operating Engineers #3 FCU CEO Lanfri Retires

After 18 years of dedicated service to Operating Engineers #3 Federal Credit Union, CEO Leon Lanfri has retired.

Credit Union 24 Added 28 CUs in 2010

Credit Union 24 reported that 28 new credit unions signed up with its nationwide ATM and POS network in 2010.

IMCU Teams Up With Athlete to Benefit Community Center

Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger's three-point shots will do more than help the basketball team advance, thanks to the launch of Indiana Members Credit Union's TEAM 33.

Colorado CU Signs With Lending CUSO

The $70 million Members Federal Credit Union will now offer commercial loans and lines of credit through a partnership with Centennial Lending LLC.

Florida Family Wins Credit Union's Savings Challenge

Competing against eight other families, the Shaw family emerged as the winner of $10,000 in Florida Commerce Credit Union's second weLiveFIT! Challenge.

Vendors: Debit Card Rewards Programs Will Change, Not Disappear

By David Morrison

Debit card rewards programs at credit unions will survive the coming downturn in debit card interchange, but they will have to change and broaden their foundations in order to remain a part of credit union programs and services.

Treasury Rolls Out Tax Refunds Using Visa Prepaid Debt Cards

Starting this year, at least some underbanked or unbanked tax payers will be able to receive their tax refunds on prepaid Visa branded debit cards.

Member Confidence Slides, Discover Survey Says

A survey conducted by the Discover card brand has reported that the increased economic confidence that credit union members have shown in previous surveys has vanished.

CUDL Offers CUs New Credit Score Disclosure Tool

By Joyce Moed

New risk-based pricing provisions of the Federal Trade Commission's Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or FACTA, require creditors to make available the reasons for customers' credit terms based on their individual credit scores.

Fiserv Lands XP2, Acumen Users

New users of Fiserv Inc.'s long-established XP2 platform and its new Acumen solution have been signed by the Brookfield, Wis., company.

Ongoing Operations Expands Into Cloud

Ongoing Operations LLC of Hagerstown, Md., has partnered with a West Coast hosted applications specialist to offer a new suite of production IT offerings for credit unions.

Ohio CU Buys Address Verification Software

Experian QAS said the $753 million Seven Seventeen Credit Union in Warren, Ohio, has purchased its address verification software and rolled it out to about 120 employees.

RDC Users Reach 100,000 at EasCorp

More than 100,000 credit union members are now using Eastern Corporate Federal Credit Union's remote deposit capture service for homes and businesses, the corporate said.

Symitar Aims to Ease Software, Human Communication

By Marc Rapport

One of the credit union industry's leading core-processing proponents of open systems has institutionalized "co-opetition" with a program designed to smooth the way between credit unions and third-party vendors.

Software Provider SilverCloud Signs Eight Credit Unions

Eight more credit unions signed on as new users of SilverCloud Inc.'s software in the past month and two more have expanded their business, the company said.

Geezeo Signs PFM User

The $1.3 billion University Federal Credit Union of Austin, Texas, has contracted with Geezeo to launch the company's personal financial management and Internet banking marketing platforms in 2011.

Three Canadian CUs Tout Mobile P2P as a First

What they're calling the country's first mobile person-to-person payments service by a financial institution has been launched by three Canadian credit unions.

CU*NorthWest Signs Three as New Users of Core Platform

Three more credit unions are now running on the CU*Answers core processing platform and a fourth will be soon, according to CU*NorthWest.

FTC Red Flags Rule on Identity Theft Takes Effect

The Federal Trade Commission's Red Flags Rule is now in place.

S1 Begins PayPal P2P

The Global e-commerce provider S1 Corp. of Atlanta is now offering PayPal service integrated with its online and mobile banking solutions.

Best Practices For Cloud Computing

Millions of Americans are increasingly putting personal information, family photos and documents in the public cloud through Gmail, Flickr and Facebook and may not realize the problems that could present.

Growth Predicted in Retail Banking Spending

Financial institutions across the world will be spending $132 billion on retail banking technology five years from now, an increase of 24% from current levels, according to Ovum.

Xoom Corp. Offers Online Funds Transfers to UK Accounts

A new online wire transfer service from San Francisco-based Xoom Corp. now allows delivery to most United Kingdom bank accounts in about an hour or less, the company says.

Symitar to Offer Gladiator ESM

The 550 credit unions using the Symitar Episys core platform will now be offered the Gladiator Enterprise Security Monitoring solution from a sister division at Jack Henry & Associates.

Segmint Partners With Sharetec

Segmint Inc. of Akron, Ohio, said it has partnered with Sharetec Systems to make its personal digital relationship building technology available to the core processor's credit union clients.

Experian Integrates With MeridianLink

Experian's PreciseID identification and credit verification service is now integrated with MeridianLink's multi-channel account opening and loan origination platform, the companies said.

Dell to Buy SecureWorks

Dell said it plans to buy SecureWorks Inc., an Atlanta-based provider of information security services to several hundred credit unions, the companies said.

Dwolla Launches Nationwide P2P System

A new peer-to-peer online and mobile payments system aimed at credit unions and other financial institutions has been launched by Dwolla Corp. of Des Moines, Iowa.

Symitar Vendor Integration Program Grows

Symitar has added two more companies to its program for streamlining and supporting integration between third-party vendors and its Episys core processing system.

CUs Deserve a Complete Capital Restructuring

By Sarah Snell Cooke

NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz renewed her call for supplemental capital for credit unions in a letter to the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees.

Keep Those Letters Coming

Credit Union Times has a goal for 2011 to include Letters to the Editor in nearly every, if not all, issues. We had letters in nearly every issue of 2010.

Credit Union Boards Need To Step Up Their Game

If you are currently sitting on a board, you are finding yourself under heavy scrutiny from your stakeholders, federal and state regulators and the public.

Harness Mortgage Opportunities via the Web

Thomas Edison once said that most people miss a good opportunity because "it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Sage advice from a great man. But many times, seizing a good opportunity isn't that hard at all.

Credit Card Programs and Mergers: Watch Out!

By now nearly every credit card issuer understands that the CARD Act and the new normal has changed the way credit card programs must be managed.

CUs Must Act Now to Prepare for Durbin Amendment

Now that the Federal Reserve has publicly discussed the proposed rules surrounding debit card interchange and routing, financial institutions should be preparing for the impact.

People

Hudson River Community Credit Union, Hudson Falls, N.Y., promoted Erika Williams to senior financial services officer at its Hudson Falls branch.

Awards

1st Advantage Federal Credit Union, Yorktown, Va., received a Green Award from the Newport News Green Foundation for its Denbigh branch.

Awards II

Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union, St. Paul, Minn., announced that its chief administrative officer, Elizabeth Hayes, was honored with the award of "Top Women in Finance."

Branching

Advantis Credit Union, Portland, Ore., reopened its 12,380-square-foot branch in Belmont on Dec. 6. The branch reopened after an extensive $2.2 million upgrade in structure and technology.