Survey: 75% Of CUs Favor Limits On Capital Investors
ARLINGTON, Va.-Nearly 75% of credit union respondents to a NAFCU survey indicated they favor limits on who could invest in their secondary capital. Other findings in NAFCU's Flash Survey:
* 86% would oppose secondary capital if it came at the cost of the CU tax exemption.
* 46% want secondary capital limited to members of the respective CU.
* Loan growth was 12.7% in February over the same period one year earlier among responding CUs, with real estate lending the largest driver.
MI Bill Would Allow Cities, Schools To Deposit At CUs
LANSING, Mich.-A bill before the Michigan legislature would permit municipalities and school districts in the state to invest in credit union certificates of deposits.
The bill would expand the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service (CDARS) from banks; CDARs parcels funds out to ensure they remain under the deposit insurance cap. Having passed the Senate, the bill is now before the House Banking and Financial Services Committee.
Tyndall FCU Expands Into Alabama With 2 Branches
PANAMA CITY, Fla.-Tyndall FCU said it plans to build two new branches to serve residents of Alabama's Houston County, after being approved by NCUA to expand its field of membership across the state border.
The two branches, scheduled for completion this summer, are slated for the city of Dothan, Ala.
The $940-million credit union, which was chartered to serve employees at Tyndall Air Force Base, is now authorized to serve 10 counties in the two states.
Tyndall had a successful 2008, with more than $3.9 million of net income.
PSCU-FS Pays Out $45.4 Million
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.-PSCU Financial Service paid its member CUs a $45.4 million dividend, fueled by the sale of $35 million of stock the payments processing CUSO held in MasterCard and Visa.
Also enabling the payout was a 12% increase in revenue, to $633 million for 2008. Transaction volume was up 17.4% for the year, to 950 million credit, debit and bill payment transactions. The total number of accounts serviced by the CUSO grew by over one million to 13 million, which represents a 8.6% increase over 2007. In addition, the cooperative's Contact Center handled 16 million calls, or 1.7 million more calls than the previous year.
The CUSO paid out 85% of this year's dividend in cash to its more than 600 credit union owners. The remainder will be deposited in a revolving fund to be paid out at a later date.
ACUL Intro's Data Security Bill
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-The Alabama CU League (ACUL) has helped to introduce a data security bill in to the state legislature. Sen. Roger Bedford has introduced the bill in the state Senate, Rep. Tammy Irons in the House. The bill was first introduced in 2008 but did not pass. ACUL CEO Gary Wolter said the league expected it would require multiple sessions in the legislature to get the measure passed, but noted that new data breaches, most recently the Hearland breach, are expected to help the bill gain "momentum and traction." The bill's three major provisions are: require entities that experience a data breach to notify consumers; prohibit the retention of sensitive consumer financial data, and require any entity that experiences a breach and held such prohibited data must reimburse the issuing financial institution for the cost of reissuing cards and/or taking appropriate steps to protect accounts at risk.
Correction & Clarification
In the April 13 edition of the Credit Union Journal, Charter Oak FCU's assets were misstated. The CU has $600 million in assets.
