CURIA Legislation Will Likely Have To Wait
WASHINGTON-Congressional banking committees are likely to remain occupied with an omnibus regulatory relief for credit unions, banks and thrifts in the months before this fall's elections, making extremely unlikely a vote on the credit union-specific relief bill, known as CURIA, according to one leading lawmaker.
"We're focused on regulatory relief now," Rep. Michael Oxley, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told attendees to CUNA Government Affairs Committee. Oxley said the regulatory relief bill has passed his committee and he hopes it will be voted by the full House later this month.
The regulatory relief bill has many, but not all of the provisions that CURIA has. Among the CURIA provisions absent are enactment of a risk-based capital system for credit unions and a provision requiring at least 20% of members vote on conversion of a credit union to mutual savings bank.
Postal CU To Become Faith-Based Group
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.-Officials with Springfield Postal Employees CU hope to boost the credit union's prospects by a new kind of conversion-to faith-based credit union. State regulators have approved a change in the $8-million credit union's charter to allow membership for members, employees and family members of Abundant Faith Christian Center, which will become the focus of the credit union, now called Financial Partners CU. Church members and local officials attended last week's ceremony in the foyer of the church celebrating the conversion. Credit union officials have faith the new charter will change the prospects of one of the state's oldest credit unions, chartered in 1926, which has seen little growth over the past few years as a result of cutbacks in the postal service.
Fiserv Cos. To Debut Solution
WASHINGTON-The seven core processing companies that are part of Fiserv and which serve more than a third of all credit unions will shortly unveil a uniform two-factor authentication solution. Fiserv executives at CUNA's GAC told The Credit Union Journal they chose not to have each business unit develop its own solution and instead leverage Fiserv's scale by having representatives of each company work as part of a team that eventually chose a product from an outside vendor that in turn will be offered to its 2,200 credit union clients. Credit unions have until year-end to comply with new rules requiring two layers of authentication before a member can access financial information online.
Ex-Manager Gets 60 Months
CARLISLE, Penn.-The former manager of Rite Aid Employees CU was sentenced to 60 months probation and ordered to pay $23,000 in restitution for stealing those funds while she managed the credit union.
Judith Hurt, 34, of Wilmington, Del., was given 50 months to make restitution. The theft was discovered by the credit union after Hurt was fired by the board of directors in January 2001.
Sentencing Is Delayed
LAS VEGAS-Sentencing was delayed this week for a woman who drove off the Las Vegas Strip in an armored car with almost $3-million belonging to Nevada FCU and Bank of America, then spent a decade on the run before turning herself in.
Prosecutors requested the delay because they said they did not have time to find an expert to counter a defense psychiatrist who said Heather Tallchief was brainwashed into the theft by her boyfriend, Roberto Solis.
Tallchief, now 34, faces up to 40 years in prison after she confessed to using her job as armored car driver to hijack a car full of cash from the Circus Circus casino hotel in 1993. Tallchief told authorities she drove to a rented garage and helped Solis load the cash onto another vehicle before they fled the country. Tallchief lived in Amsterdam under an assumed identity where she raised her son, now 11. Solis, the boy's father, remains a fugitive.
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