WASHINGTON – While the Obama administration has publicly kept its distance from the housing finance reform debate during the past two years, it has been privately working to help move a bill forward in recent months, according to numerous sources.

NEW YORK – It is not just credit unions that have been reducing loan loss provisions; community banks have been doing the same.

ARLINGTON, Va. – NAFCU told the Department of Defense the current regulations the DoD is considering to revise are working well and need not be revised.

DETROIT – National Credit Union Administration Board Chairman Debbie Matz, speaking to the African-American Credit Union Coalition’s annual conference, said minority credit unions are essential to fostering economic diversity and opportunity in communities across America, particularly low-income and underserved communities.

MADISON, Wis. – New executive compensation data released by the Credit Union Executives Society has found an overall increase of 6.43% in CEO base salaries and 8.18% in total compensation during 2013.

WASHINGTON – A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Act, ruling the Texas bank that brought the suit and 11 states’ attorneys general who signed on did not show the likelihood of harm from the new law.

CLEVELAND – Federal prosecutors filed papers this morning seeking to seize the $1 million home in suburban Solon owned by Alex Spirikaitis, the fugitive CEO of Taupa Lithuanian CU, which was shuttered by regulators two weeks ago.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The National Cooperative Bank has purchased a $7.25 million loan participation in a $12.25 million loan facility with Alaska USA FCU for the refinancing of the KeyBank Center midtown in Anchorage.

WASHINGTON – The Senate last night voted confirmation of former Oregon Senator Richard Metsger to the NCUA Board, just as a second vacancy on the three-member panel opened up.

WYOMISSING, Penn. – Utilities Employees CU has signed with SWBC Investment Services to offer life insurance to the investment and insurance services available through its Utilities Employees Investment Services CUSO.

PHOENIX – Arizona FCU has signed with Jack Henry & Associates’ Symitar unit to install the company’s Episys core processing system in-house.

ROANOKE, Va. – Blue Eagle FCU, a $115-million credit union formerly known as Roanoke Postal Employees FCU, has agreed to merged into it Southwestern Telco FCU, a struggling, $7-million Roanoke credit union.

WASHINGTON – Mortgage rates went back up this week, after declining the previous two weeks following a six-week fall, according to Freddie Mac.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Michael Fryzel’s six-year term on the NCUA Board expires Friday, but Fryzel said he plans to stay on until a successor is confirmed by the Senate.

ARLINGTON, Va. – NAFCU marked the end of one era and the beginning of another yesterday when Dan Berger took over as president of the national trade association.

FAIRBORN, Ohio – Wright-Patt CU announced the theme of its sixth annual Savings Race will be health and financial fitness, with five families competing to reduce their medical debt by getting both financially and physically fit.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – The entry period is now open for the CO-OP THINK Prize 14, with entrants having until Oct. 15 to complete their round one application and become eligible for the $10,000 grand prize sponsored by MasterCard.

COPPELL, Texas – The Merchant Customer Exchange, a fledgling mobile payments system being developed by retail giants fighting Visa and MasterCard, named longtime cards veteran Dekkers Davidson, managing director at Barclaycard US, as its first CEO.

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. – While credit unions and other analysts try to make sense of what a court ruling striking down the Fed’s 2011 interchange cap of 21 cents might mean, at least one analyst sees an even lower interchange rate benefitting most credit unions.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Durbin, the architect of the Federal Reserve’s cap on debit fees, called on the Fed to enact new ceilings on swipe fees similar to a 2%-of-transaction maximum the European Commission has proposed.