PayThink

Employees of the continuing credit union (CCU) are often assigned to work temporarily at the merging credit union (MCU). The practice facilitates implementation of the CCU's processes and procedures, and it serves several other purposes in advancing the operational merger. The same is true of assigning employees of the MCU to work temporarily at the CCU.

When developing or implementing a new or "refreshed" training program, much is said about what to do, but little is mentioned about what not to do.

Times change. Member needs and wants change. Staff perceptions change. How recently (and how well) has your credit union changed to adjust? Research can provide the answers.

The nearly 350 community activists from Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America were headed to Phoenix, the second stop on a four-city tour to help distressed borrowers avoid foreclosure. But Bruce Marks, NACA's CEO, would be staying behind for a few hours. He had just set up a meeting with executives at the bond powerhouse PIMCO — with, we think, our inadvertent assistance.

Ann Minch decided she’d had enough of Bank of America after the bank notified her it was raising her credit card’s interest rate to 30%--for no apparent reason. So she made a video and posted it on Youtube inviting viewers to join her in a “debtors’ revolt.”

This is a season of throwbacks: Economists claim the U.S. is experiencing the biggest downturn since the 1930s and now there’s art to match that comparison. A new Web site launched by the Independent Community Bankers of America hearkens to pre-war caricatures of greedy big bankers in its quest to promote the virtues of community banks.

This week is going to be another tough one for the Federal Reserve’s relations with Congress, as a second hearing in the House Financial Services Committee potentially gives air to members’ trepidation over more Fed power. Elsewhere, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is expected to release new mortgage metrics. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, delayed these past two weeks, could finally emerge as well.

Have elections become even more bitter, nasty, chock full o'accusations and half-truths and spin? Or have elections from the earliest days always been partisan and acrimonious, and it's just the widespread access to media that has brought the rancor readily to our desktops, making it only seem worse.

First came the mortgages. Now come the credit cards. And the HELOCs and auto loans for that matter.

Like a lot of people today, I find myself wondering just how long it will take for the economy to fully recover from the difficulties of the past year. While there have been some glimmers of hope, I still feel some unease — not knowing what will happen in the next year, month, or even week.