APPLE VALLEY, Minn. -- The Web site created by Wings Financial Federal Credit Union during its merger campaign towards members of Continental Federal Credit Union has recently been updated with a new invitation encouraging Continental Airline employees to join.

On the continentalwings.com site, the wording reads "Continental Airlines Employees Welcome at Wings! Become a member of Wings Financial, now..." Visitors click on a link at http://www.continentalwings.com/ASP/home.asp, which goes to a section where they can either find out if they are eligible to join or finish an uncompleted application. Soon after, Wings Financial updated the site again to read "Continental Airlines Employees Welcome at Wings! Despite the end of formal merger efforts with Continental Federal Credit Union, we continue to invite Continental Airlines employees to join Wings and receive the numerous benefits many of your co-workers are already enjoying."

"Our convenient online application process requires only minutes of your time," the site reads.

Wings Financial launched the continentalwings.com Web site on March 9, the same day it sent a merger proposal to $182 million Continental FCU, which subsequently turned down the proposal. What followed was a nearly month-long campaign wooing Continental members with inducements such as $200 payments should a merger go through. NCUA's ruling that the payments were impermissible under the Federal Credit Union Act put a stop to Wings Financial's campaign.

Wings Financial has not responded to questions about the site's latest update.

Tom Glatt, president/CEO of Continental FCU, is not fazed by the latest update on the site. Glatt said Continental FCU has moved on.

"We continue to work our strategic plan and build and improve not only member relations on a one-to-one basis, but also sponsor relations with both Continental Airlines and US Airways," Glatt said.

Over the last 60 days, Continental FCU has opened a new branch in Houston, dedicated two new ATMs at Chelsea Foods, a division of Continental Airlines, rolled out several new products and implemented a new pricing scheme--"All these were completions of initiatives that were started prior to the Wings unwarranted hostile takeover attempt,"

Glatt reiterated.

"Wings Financial is obviously free to market to potential members as they see fit, and while we certainly respect Wings Financial as a competitor, we don't fear them," Glatt said.

[email protected]