WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - After the world didn't end with Y2K, credit unions moved on with plenty of newsworthy developments during 2000. Among them: * Two Indiana CUs were hit by pipe bombs * Security Service FCU, in a joint promotion, has its name printed on 1.25 million cans of Mountain Dew. The theme: "Do the Dew with SSFCU." * The first talking ATM makes its debut * Polish & Slavic FCU pays $185,000 fine to settle civil money laundering charges and its conservatorship is ended. The credit union had sent 6,000 money transfers to Poland without notifying authorities. Later, members of Polish & Slavic FCU picket outside NCUA's headquarters * Vista FCU offers a CD bonus tied to a member's age as part of its birthday * One New England credit union found its web page defaced by alternating arguments between two hackers over who had defaced the page first * Manny Prupes, the founder of Symitar, dies * In his last remarks at GAC, NCUA Chairman Norm D'Amours offers biting, critical remarks. "It is distressing to watch the credit union movement slowly but inexorably moving away from its early emphasis on empowering people of small means." * Plans are announced to build a Credit Union House in Washington. Ground is broken in October * Frank Lynch, president of the Irish league, is killed in a car accident * Arthur Arnold of the Netherlands is named to head up the World Council * Six months after going public, former credit union IGA FCU, now IGA FSB, is subject of takeover attempt * eBay reaches deal allowing individual consumers to pay each other with credit cards * Texas Rep. Joe Barton blames his credit union for selling his name to Victoria's Secret. Barton is later informed his name was sold by his card processor * The Golden 1, Sacramento, is OK'd by California's regulator to serve more than five-million people; Wescom CU, USE CU, gets OK to serve 10-million residents * CUNA rolls out Project Differentiation program with the mailing of 5,000 kits * In Miami, an elementary school named after Hubert Sibley, Jr., president of Dade County School Employees FCU, opens * Stanford FCU spins off its wholly owned CUSO, CyberBranch, to be run by CU's CEO, Warren Marshall * A Mexican CU that fails leaves 58,000 members wondering about their $160-million worth of deposits * USE CU, San Diego, is first financial institution in country to offer wireless Internet account access on an institution-wide basis * Dallas County Employees FCU dangles a reward for attending its annual meeting: Pokemon cards * Security companies that attempt "white hat" hacks of CU data systems emerge * Riverside County's CU dusts off an old idea, and finds it popular - it gives away toasters * A PriceWaterhouseCoooper's survey, conducted at the behest of The Credit Union Journal, finds 57% of the top 30 CU sites in California violated law with no conspicuous privacy policy * A study by the Filene Institute polls 454 CEOs and finds, service to low and moderate income folks ranked near bottom of list of both values and practices * As part of a fraud attempt, seven defendants are indicated for creating a phony credit union in California * CUs have a heightened presence for first time at two major political conventions n A trio of female bandits, nicknamed Charlie's Angels, is finally nabbed in California * Credit union profitability rockets 16% during the first half of the year due to investments * NCUA, expressing concern over the number of CUs switching to state charter, says it will not join in a "competition of laxity" with state lawmarkers, and urged restraint on the part of some state regulators * Internet fraud gets all the attention, but old-fashioned check fraud remains a big problem, at $13 billion in 2000, with TowerGroup projecting it will grow 10% annually * The Alaska league announces it will allow its affiliates to also belong to other state leagues * Struggling to build a retail branch presence (ironically), Internet banks begin forming relationships with other retailers, such as MailBoxes, Etc. * Identity theft begins to emerge as a threat. The Credit Union Journal profiles one Texas man who was known to have at least 16 people using his identity * CUs commit funds to study of alternatives to federal insurance * CIMCO, the investment advisory group owned by CUNA Mutual, changes its name to MEMBERS Capital Advisors * CUES breaks ground for a new office in Fitchburg, Wis. * Bethex FCU, New York, enters into agreement with RiteCheck Cashing * Barbara Glenron, CEO of County of Henrico FCU, Virginia, wins $10.6 million in the state lottery. Glenron did not retire, and stayed aboard until a satisfactory replacement was in place * Reynolds Carolina FCU built a park on its property dedicated to cancer victims * California CUs release study finding most consumers know NOTHING about credit unions * An application is filed in Virginia for an Internet only credit union * SECU launches payday loan service * .coop is OK'd as a domain name * Meriwest CU forms an "e" division * Fred Becker named to succeed Ken Robinson at NAFCU n After seven months of comment, Dennis Dollar pulls his reg flex initiative in October after it is apparent the other two board members won't support it * The CU Journal switches to newspaper stock * Account aggregators, or "screen-scrapers," emerge as a new form of competition n CUs start setting records for political fundraising. CUNA pours $3 million into races * By a 417-4 tally, credit unions object in comment letters to NCUA's Community Action Plan. But in October, D'Amours and board member Yoland Wheat vote in favor of CAP, even though one member of Congress had already said he'd file legislation to repeal it.
