SSCU Reports Profitable Q3

Maybe what credit unions really need is Super Car-io Bros., or Call of Duty: Compliance, or maybe Grand Heft Auto Loans.

Most every financial institution has been engaged in some type of improvement initiative over the past few years to improve operational performance and profitability.

The annual "A Day in the Life of Credit Unions Project" pictorial project in the October 14, 2013, edition of the Credit Union Journal is a fitting tribute to credit unions and the observation of International Credit Union Week. I commend you and your staff for putting together this outstanding feature.

There is no shortage of data when it comes to a credit union's credit card program. Every day there is a tidal wave of data about who used their cards, how many times, what they spent and where they spent it.

Youth may be wasted on the young-but not your efforts to promote debit cards. Despite the product's maturity, younger consumers demonstrate a clear preference for debit cards as their primary payment method.

A selection of images featuring credit unions' efforts in their communities.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — NCUA placed Mayfair FCU, Philadelphia, in conservatorship after four straight quarters of losses at the $14.3 million-asset credit union.

SAN FRANCISCO—Many credit unions are on a "collision course with disaster" because they are not pricing loans correctly.

BOSTON—Though the prepaid card market's image is changing and its usage is climbing, credit unions aren't rushing to bring the offering into their cards mix.

BUCKSPORT, Me. — Seaboard FCU has become the first financial institution to offer a new private student loan guaranteed by the Financial Authority of Maine, known as FAME.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — New NCUA Board member Rick Metsger has hired Michael Radway, a former congressional staffer who helped draft HR 1151, the landmark 1998 CU Membership Access Act, as his top policy advisor Friday, NCUA announced.

ENDICOTT, N.Y.—Federal regulators have approved Visions FCU's proposal to absorb CTCE FCU, a $78 million CU in Reading, Penn.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The various offices of NCUA working to resolve credit union failures typically diverge on the estimated costs—sometimes widely—to the National CU Share Insurance Fund.

VERNON HILLS, Ill. — Baxter CU announced Friday morning it has successfully completed the first implementation of CU Financial Exchange.

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Thursday that the Senate will reconsider the nominations of Rep. Mel Watt to be chairman of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulator.

BALTIMORE—All that's left for Municipal Employees CU of Baltimore to close the deal on its purchase of Baltimore-based Advance Bank is shareholder approval.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — NCUA banned a former manager of the Veterans Administration branch of The Credit Union of Leavenworth Thursday from working for credit unions or banks for stealing $330,000 from members she had personally befriended

WASHINGTON—More members are making credit unions their primary financial institution, according to the latest data from Callahan & Associates.

WASHINGTON — President Obama's nomination of Democratic Rep. Mel Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency is in jeopardy after Senate Republicans successfully blocked a final confirmation vote on the potential chief regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.