On Deadline

Texas CU League's Buddy Gill Moves To NCUA

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz announced last week the hiring of Buddy Gill, the long-time political director for the Texas CU League, as senior strategic advisor. Gill will work closely with Matz and NCUA's Public and Congressional Affairs team to design strategic messages and execute communication initiatives. The agency said Gill will also serve as a liaison to the credit union industry and related stakeholders, advising the chairman regarding how regulations are working at the credit union level, and how NCUA can better help credit unions serve their members.

Gill joins NCUA after serving seven years as the chief advocacy officer and senior vice president of the Texas League. Prior to that, Gill ran his own strategic communications consulting firm, with CUNA as a core client, and Gill was a principal strategist and architect behind the public relations efforts to pass HR 1151, the CU Membership Access Act of 1998.

Gill will assume his new duties at NCUA July 5.

 

Agency: CDFI Grants Are Now Available

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-NCUA has announced the availability of funding in 2011 for low-income credit unions through the Community Development Revolving Loan Fund (CDRLF) Technical Assistance Grant (TAG).

Congress established NCUA's CDRLF to support credit unions that serve low-income communities by providing loans and technical assistance grants to qualifying institutions. The programs are designed to further the safety and soundness of low-income credit unions (LICUs) while stimulating economic growth.

For 2011, the CDRLF received approximately $1.25 million in appropriations for technical assistance grants from Congress. The grants are available via the seven initiatives: Building Internal Initiatives; Financial Education and Financial Literacy Initiative, Round II; Partnerships and Outreach Initiative; Staff, Official, and Board Member Training Initiative; Student Internship and Job Creation Initiative; Urgent Needs Grant and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Initiative (VITA).

For info: www.ncua.gov.

 

Harland Clarke Still Fighting Takeover

NEW YORK-A shareholder in M&F Worldwide, the parent of Harland Clarke check printers, filed suit last week against billionaire financier Ron Perelman and his MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings.

"Perelman is opportunistically seeking to take the company private at an inadequate price when the company's stock price is trading at a two-year low," said the suit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court.

MacAndrews and Forbes, which is wholly owned by Perelman, owns 43% of M&F and bid Monday to acquire the remaining shares at $24 each, a 41% premium to last Friday's closing price, but a 22% discount to its 52-week high of $30.77.

M&F is the parent of Harland Clarke, which it formed by the 2005 acquisition of check printer Clarke American and the 2007 deal for John H. Harland Co., as well as Harland Financial and Scantron. Barry Schwartz, the chief administrative officer for MacAndrews and Forbes, also is CEO of M&F.

Perelman's control of M&F Worldwide also makes it "unlikely that any special committee would render an independent decision that protects the interest of the public shareholders," the lawsuit said.

In Perelman's offer, he stated that he would not be selling the shares of M&F Worldwide he already owns. The lawsuit said that refusal means the company will be unable to perform a market check on the company's value by entertaining other bids.

Shareholders leveled similar accusations against Perelman after his deal for common stock of Revlon Inc, which he also owns. The cosmetics company reported strong results after some common shares had been swapped into preferred stock.

 

HRCCU's Rezoning Request OKd

CORINTH, N.Y.-Village officials have approved a request from Hudson River Community CU to rezone 10 acres it plans to buy from International Paper Co. to enable the CU to build a new operations center.

 

Corrections & Clarifications

A figure for adoption rates related to mobile banking that appeared in an opinion column by Andrew Tilbury in the June 13 issue should have been credited to Javelin Research.

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