WAUWATOSA, Wis. — Home123 has selected Central States Mortgage to provide its mortgage and financial services.

In a written statement touting the partnership, Central States Mortgage said Home123's decision to work with the CUSO rather than a national bank stemmed from two reasons.

First, the CUSO demonstrated that credit unions offer better options for consumers in service and stability–a major concern during this period of uncertainty in the financial sector.

Secondly, Home123's market sampling indicated that consumers identify credit unions with honesty and integrity–a sentiment that Home123 expects to help it disassociate from the negative connotations associated with the subprime lending practices of its former parent company, New Century Financial, one of the first subprime mortgage brokers to go out of business.

The rights to Home123 were purchased in 2008 after New Century TRS Holdings filed for bankruptcy in 2007.

At one time, Home123 was one of the nation's largest providers of home mortgages. The brand reportedly generated over $12 billion in revenues for both 2005 and 2006 and had a national marketing campaign that included NASCAR sponsorship.

Central States Mortgage began operations in 1984 and became a CUSO in 1997 with 12 initial credit union shareholders. It has grown to 25 shareholder credit unions. Central States Mortgage says that it's the nation's third largest CUSO.

Digital Dialogue Goes Live

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Digital Dialogue is now providing 24/7 call center services for the $1.2 billion Chevron Federal Credit Union of Oakland, Calif.

The 66,000-member CU (www.chevronfcu.org) said it decided on the Digital Dialogue service after consulting with other credit unions running Symitar core processing systems.

The service was announced to members in mid-September after a soft launch in June used to validate and create scripts. Business continuity planning joined basic member services as considerations, the company and credit union said.

Digital Dialogue (www.digital-dialogue.com) serves more than 200 credit unions and is based in suburban Detroit. It ?-s owned by PSCU Financial Services, which also recently signed a five-year deal to convert 40,000 offline debit and 15,000 PIN debit accounts to PSCU Financial Services.

PARDA FCU Selects CU National Mortgage

PINE BROOK, N.J. — PARDA Federal Credit Union has selected CU National Mortgage to support its retail mortgage lending business.

“Obviously the biggest objective is to be partnered with an organization that will aid our credit union in reaching the goal of being the financial institution of choice for our members,” Cliff Esckelson, chief operating officer for PARDA Federal Credit Union, explained in a written statement.

“One of the other driving forces for our decision to leverage CU National Mortgage's lending services is the organization's sole focus on serving the credit union industry,” said Esckelson.

“Having this sole focus on credit unions is a very important factor for us–along with the fact that they are also located in New Jersey, where a large percentage of our members reside,” he continued.

CU National Mortgage said its first move has been to guide the credit union in becoming an FHA-approved lender.

The CUSO also said it will become, in essence, PARDA's mortgage department. CU National Mortgage will provide PARDA with a multichannel origination platform, loan processing, underwriting and some secondary-market functions. This platform will allow the credit union to expand its origination channels, making mortgages more convenient to its members. In addition, PARDA will use CU National Mortgage's in-bound call center and fully branded Internet origination site.

In addition, PARDA had customized monthly reports from its previous origination and servicing partner. The Pine Brook, N.J.-based CUSO's staff successfully duplicated the reports so there was very little impact on the credit union's staff.

PARDA has $171 million in assets and 23,000 members. It is based in Rochester, Mich.

New Boeing Wichita CEO

WICHITA, Kan. — There's a new leader headed to Boeing Wichita Credit Union.

Effective Dec. 3, Robert W. Corwin will step in as the new president/CEO.

Corwin has more than 30 years of financial services experience. Prior to joining BWCU, Corwin was executive vice president/chief operating officer of First Tech Credit Union in Beaverton, Ore. At First Tech, Corwin played a key role in the implementation of innovative products and services, as well as leading the development of a 17-branch network spanning two states and serving employees of industry leading companies such as Microsoft, Nike, and Intel.

During Corwin's tenure, he also led several successful mergers expanding First Tech's fields of membership and geographic footprint.

“With his vast experience in the financial services industry, we are confident in his ability to continue to lead this credit union down the path of continued success and growth,” said BWCU Board Chairman Duane VanCamp. “Given Bob's proven ability to implement positive change, we are confident in Bob's abilities that will assure BWCU of attaining and surpassing our goals and continued growth and success which is consistent with BWCU's long-term strategic plan. We feel his expertise will propel us to even greater heights.”

CU*Base Adds Clients

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — There now are 14 credit unions running on the CU*Base core processing platform through CU*Northwest (www.cu-northwest.com).

Two credit unions recently converted: the $25 million Blue Mountain CU of College Place, a former client of CMC Flex, and the $34 million Spokane Law Enforcement CU, which had been running on a USERS platform from Fiserv.

CU*Northwest, a Liberty Lake-based CUSO and independent offshoot of Michigan-based CU*Answers, said it now has 14 credit unions running the CU*Base system in service bureau and in-house environments.

Michigan First CU Wins Fraud Case

LATHRUP VILLAGE, Mich. — Michigan First Credit Union was awarded $360,000 in its case against Al Long Ford for the claim that the dealership falsified documents to secure auto loans for high-risk customers who later defaulted.

“The big issue was that the dealership indicated that members had put cash down when they had not. Instead they had used a rebate. This was important to the credit union because these were D and E borrowers,” said Patty Corkery, an attorney from Holzman Ritter & Leduc that represented the credit union at the trial.

Corkery also said that the dealership inflated members' income in the loan applications.

Michigan First had 570 loans with Al Long Ford, and of those loans over 200 defaulted, which was a much higher rate than Michigan First's other loan programs. The credit union discovered that the dealership had falsified information on the loan applications when the loans began to default and the credit union started to contact the members.

The $360,000 awarded to the credit union will amount to over $400,000 with interest, Corkery said. The credit union was also awarded attorney fees that will be determined in a separate trial.