WAILEA, Hawaii -- Bill Sheedy, president of North America for Visa Inc, said credit unions have grown in stature with the No. 1 card brand.

Heartland Payment Systems, the company that suffered a 2008 card security breach that cost card issuers, including credit unions, hundreds of millions of dollars made money in the first quarter of 2010, according to the company.

NAFCU is one many groups contacting Congress in opposition to an amendment to the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 that would effectively end federal government support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in two years.

Some of the credit unions that lost money when US Mortgage CEO Michael McGrath fraudulently sold some of their loans to Fannie Mae have made progress in coming to a settlement with the mortgage giant and CUNA Mutual Insurance.

A private equity firm, the Blackstone Group, has launched talks to possibly take over FIS, the card processor for the majority of the nation's card issuing credit unions.

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas has the power to make his small state the first in the country to pass a measure that could significantly impact the amount of card interchange earned from card transactions.

A recent survey of bank loan officers conducted by the Federal Reserve suggests that credit unions are still likely to find themselves the only lenders to even some of their most credit worthy members.

NAFCU has written a letter to U.S. Senators about one of the amendments to the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 that has drawn little attention, a measure that would cap ATM fees at fifty cents per transaction.