LAUREL, Md. – Tower FCU has agreed to acquire ailing U.S. Coast Guard Community CU, a $34-million, privately insured Baltimore credit union.

TAMPA, Fla. – Two men on Friday were sentenced to prison for an identity theft scheme that drained more than $60,000 from cardholders at several financial institutions, most of it from accounts at Solidarity Community FCU in Kokomo, Ind.

WASHINGTON – The Senate Banking Committee is expected to hold a hearing next week on the controversial nomination of Richard Cordray to a full, five-year term as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – even as Republican members of the committee continue to oppose the nomination.

WASHINGTON – The former CEO of Ukrainian National FCU says she was terminated by a resentful board a year ago while she was in the hospital after suffering a heart attack because she complained to NCUA several times about board meddling and financial improprieties at the $145-million credit union.

WASHINGTON – The banking industry's top trade group is renewing its push attacking the credit union tax exemption.

WASHINGTON – As the deadline for sequestration passed and federal agencies began to prepare for $85 billion in automatic spending cuts this week, credit unions across the country continue to put in place programs designed to aid members affected by the cuts.

WICHITA, Kan. – Lawyers for NCUA told a federal appeals court here Friday the federal agency should be allowed to extend the time limits for when it filed billions of dollars in claims against Wall Street banks for the failure of the corporate credit unions because the 1989 S&L bailout law, known as FIRREA, allows the federal government extraordinary powers in its efforts to recover for the resolution of failed financial institutions.

It could only happen at GAC: four of the six still-living past or current NCUA chairmen met up in the exhibit hall to chat at CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Earnings at the nation’s credit unions continued to surge in the fourth quarter, creating record net income for the year, NCUA reported this morning, the latest sign the travails of the financial crisis have been left behind.

RHINELANDER, Wis. – Ripco CU has signed with eDOC Innovations to implement the company’s ProDOC Packages workflow management tool.

LANSING, Mich. – Lake Trust CU on Thursday said it has established its own non-profit charitable foundation, Lake Trust Credit Union Foundation.

MIAMI – Dade County FCU has selected TRC Interactive to provide its employees with online instruction through CreditUnionTrainingOnline.

MADISON, Wis. – Summit is partnering with Milwaukee Energy Efficiency, dubbed Me2, to provide a special loan program for City of Milwaukee residents.

WASHINGTON – Average mortgage rates declined closer to historic lows this week, a trend that has helped drive a rebound in home sales.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Support Center, a community development organization supported by five area credit unions, has introduced special loans for military veterans.

SALEM, Ore. – CU Benefits Alliance, a multi-credit union CUSO, today announced it has signed with Cigna to provide group health insurance to credit unions across the country.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA yesterday banned Theresa Portillo, who was CEO and sole employee at Women’s Southwest FCU, a tiny feminist credit union shuttered by NCUA in October, for her January conviction of stealing $3.4 million from the credit union over 11 years.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said MEMBERS Trust Co.’s Charitable Lead Trust Program being conducted in partnership with the National CU Foundation is a permissible investment for federal credit unions as long as individual investments made by the Trust are permissible investments under NCUA’s rules and regulations.

SEATTLE – A leader of a Canadian group that skimmed ATM cards at Vancouver–area Starbucks and Dirty Apron cafes, then created counterfeit cards used to withdraw as much as $400,000 from Seattle ATMs, was arrested here last week and charged with bank fraud.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – CO-OP Financial Services announced this morning it is extending its partnership with The Members Group to offer TMG’s reloadable prepaid cards to its credit union customers.