Credit unions

DALLAS – Southwest Corporate FCU said yesterday it wrote off $24.7 million of unsecured debt it held in Lehman Brothers Holdings, the second corporate in as many weeks to take a charge related to the bankrupt brokerage.

LATHRUP VILLAGE, Mich. – Michigan First CU has introduced at-home scan and deposits, allowing members and businesses to scan checks from home or the office and directly deposit them into a Michigan First savings or checking account.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.-NCUA announced an emergency program last week that will help the strapped corporate credit unions by guaranteeing new unsecured debt they issue; a key source of liquidity for many corporates.

WASHINGTON-Corporate credit unions, saddled with billions of dollars in distressed mortgage securities, have joined the banks in a call for reform of accounting rules that require them to regularly change the value of their holdings based on market conditions-the practice known as fair value, or mark-to-market, accounting.

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department last week was hastily developing plans for its bailout of the mortgage industry and accepted bids to manage up to $700 billion of assets it will buy from banks and credit unions.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - What investment strategy should credit unions be deploying in a struggling, even sinking economy? The same strategy deployed when the economy is strong, several analysts told Credit Union Journal.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Bailouts, mergers and failures, oh my!

WASHINGTON - More corporate credit unions reported last week that losses on their mortgage securities continued to increase, just as Congress was debating a plan to buy distressed mortgage assets.

DALLAS – The corporate credit union network, already holding billions of dollars of distressed mortgage backed securities, was working last week to determine potential losses related to its ties with Lehman Brothers Holdings, the venerable Wall Street brokerage that filed for bankruptcy two weeks ago.

WASHINGTON - Corporate CUs were weighing the pros and cons last week of the massive government bailout of the mortgages markets, which would ease some of the strain of growing losses on their mortgage securities portfolios.

By Ed Roberts, Washington Bureau Chief

LENEXA, Kan. - The travails of the financial markets the last two weeks have sent a handful of corporate credit unions on an up-and-down ride, lifting prospects, then depressing them, for billions of dollars in underwater mortgage securities they hold.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The nation’s corporate credit unions say they have ramped up communications with natural-person credit unions aimed at addressing any concerns over the state of their financial health.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - NCUA last week said the declining value of mortgage backed securities held by corporate credit unions has prompted it to reclassify membership capital share accounts as equity.

Southwest Corporate

WASHINGTON - The corporate CU network has found itself in the news in recent months as a result of how the ratings agencies view their balance sheets, the performance of certain investments, and other issues. But Brad Miller, executive director of the Association of Corporate Credit Unions, said he believes the chance unrealized losses will become realized losses is “negligible.”