NEW YORK – cuStudentLoans has launched a series of what it is calling entertaining, musical videos of “hip” puppets rapping about student loan issues and how credit unions can help.

WASHINGTON – Credit unions will have to make sure promotional offers they send out on Twitter or Facebook adhere to proper disclosures and disclaimers under new guidelines issued yesterday by the Federal Trade Commission.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A region-wide department chain filed suit against Visa challenging the payment card industry standards under which the merchant was fined $13 million for a 2010 data breach.

BOCA RATON, Fla. – IBM Southeast Employees’ FCU, the last of two dozen credit unions that once bore the name of the technology giant, said its well-regarded CEO Lary McCants is retiring at year-end from the $840 million credit union.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Is the MBL cap really causing problems for credit unions? How is that industry-wide numbers show credit unions are growing, but nearly half of all credit unions are not? Can Facebook ever really help drive lending volume?

BELOIT, Wis. – First American CU said it paid its members a $2 million “Member Advantage Dividend.”

LINTHICUM Md. – Maryland State Employees CU will present a $50,000 annual gift to the University System of Maryland Foundation, to be awarded to students transferring from one of the state’s two-year community colleges to any of the system’s 11 undergraduate institutions and two regional higher education centers.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – CU Service Centers said it will pay its credit union owners a patronage dividend for the third straight year, this time $250,000 split among 54 credit unions.

GRAFTON, Mass. – Grafton Suburban CU has hired Lloyd Hamm Jr., chief administrative officer at local Eastern Bank, as president and CEO of the $130-million, western Mass. credit union.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Advantage FCU has selected TRC Interactive’s First Line of Defense ~ Fraud Detection and Loss Prevention Challenge, an online interactive experiential exercise for credit unions.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Mid-Illini CU is putting its faith in a new branch inside Mount Pisgah Church.

WASHINGTON – The House late yesterday passed a bill that will eliminate the requirement that credit unions and banks mail annual privacy disclosures to members/customers explaining information sharing agreements, unless the disclosures changed from the prior year.

ONTARIO, Calif. – CU Direct has contracted with San Diego-based First Associates Loan Servicing LLC to offer loan servicing to its 1,000 credit union customers.

WASHINGTON – A Republican congressional leader on Tuesday called on the Federal Reserve to determine the legality of some $350 million in spending on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in light of questions about the validity of Richard Cordray’s recess appointment by the president last year to direct the fledgling agency.

WYOMISSING, Penn. – Representatives of Utilities Employees CU spent several days in shale country, building partner relationships with local businesses that cater to the industry and attending the Marcellus Shale Southpointe Tradeshow here in hopes of recruiting oilfield workers as new members.

BROCKTON, Mass. – An estimated 115 members showed up for last night’s special meeting to determine whether HarborOne CU will become the biggest credit union conversion to bank, with as few as 15 of the credit union giant’s 150,000 members actually voting last night.

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans said this morning they will continue to block a vote on President Obama’s choice to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until the President agrees to change the structure of the fledgling agency.

WASHINGTON – Negotiations to move the nomination of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the Senate have been halted, rendering this morning’s hearing on the CFPB amid mass Republican opposition bid virtually meaningless.

WAYNESBORO, Tenn. – A former teller at Employee Resource CU last week was charged with stealing $9,500 from member accounts.

AMARILLO, Texas – A federal judge has sentenced a local man to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to passing more than $12,000 in fake U.S. Postal Service money orders at Borger FCU, Pantex FCU, Amarillo National Bank and a Wells Fargo bank branch in Borger.