DFCU Financial Pays $19M To Members In Bonus
DEARBORN, Mich. - About 85,000 members of DFCU Financial got a New Year's bonus with their share of the credit union's fifth consecutive Special Patronage Dividend-$19 million in total. This year's payout was calculated based upon the member's total relationship with DFCU Financial, with qualifying members receiving an 0.5% dividend on their average loan and deposit balances, with each eligible member receiving at least $50. DFCU has returned more than $90 million to members as special dividends over the last five years.
Credit Unions Hit The Hill To Welcome Congress
WASHINGTON-Credit unions hit the Hill last week to meet with members of the new Congress. (see related story, page 3).
Big Merger In Wash.
YAKIMA, Wash. - Yakima Valley CU last week said it has agreed to combine with $170 million Catholic CU to create a credit union with almost $500 million in assets serving 50,000 members. The two have tried to merge for more than a decade but now are formally starting the process because CEO succession time lines are lining up at each credit union, the credit unions said. The next step includes applying with the state and ultimately getting the approval of each set of members, which is expected in mid-2011.
100-Year-Olds Are Celebrated
BURBANK, Calif. - This week Lockheed FCU will celebrate the 100th birthday of its oldest member and her identical twin - just as the city of Burbank is preparing its own centennial celebration. The sisters, Inez Harries and Venice Shaw, who joined the credit union in the 1940s while they worked at Lockheed's Burbank plant, will turn 100 on Jan. 15 and are reported by the Guinness Book of Records to be the second oldest female identical twins in the world.
As part of the credit union's special celebration for Harries, a member since 1943, the credit union will deposit $100 into her account each month this year. Shaw is former member but now is inactive.
To mark the centennial, local artist Randall Williams is completing a photo restoration of a picture of the women when they were children. A celebration at the Burbank branch Jan. 15 will feature a giant cake and a drawing for a $100 bill for members who attend.
Employee Stole $350K From Members
DECATUR, Ill. - A former personal banker for Earthmover CU this week pleaded guilty to stealing more than $350,000 from the accounts of mostly elderly, sick and deceased members and gambling away the money. Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Tina Flinn, 43, was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to repay the stolen funds. Flinn, who worked for the credit union for 11 years, was a personal banker at the credit union's Forsyth branch assigned to the accounts from which she stole the funds, which occurred between March 2007 and last August. She was fired on Aug. 31. Flinn gambled away the money she stole, according to authorities.
SECU Foundation Offering $4M
RALEIGH, N.C. - The State Employees' CU Foundation, which has grown into one of the biggest educational grant programs in the country, plans to give another $4 million to in-state college students this year under its People Helping People scholarship program in 2011.
The non-profit arm of the $22-billion SECU once again will provide a $10,000 grant to one student at each of North Carolina's public high schools and two of the state's charter high schools in 2011, and $5,000 to a student at each of the state's community colleges. In 2010, the foundation awarded scholarships to 368 high school graduates and 118 community college graduates at a cost of more than $4.2 million.
City Council Seeks To Expand
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - City County CU has applied to state regulators to add almost two-million residents and nine nearby counties - Collier, Lee, Hendry, Glades, Charlotte, Sarasota, Desoto, Highlands, and Okeechobee - to its FOM. The $275-million CU currently serves residents in the nine surrounding counties of Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, Brevard, Osceola, Orange and Seminole.
