ORLANDO, Fla. – Fairwinds CU has signed with Vertifi Software LLC to offer the CUSO’s DeposZip Mobile remote deposit capture (RDC) service to members.

BROCKTON, Mass. – Crescent CU, this city’s second-largest credit union, has agreed to merge Brockton Postal Employees CU, a one-time $13-million credit union with four straight years of losses.

MAPLE GROVE, Minn. – TopLine FCU won a $294,000 affordable housing grant from the Federal Home Loan bank of Des Moines that will be used to provide 50 homeowners in Brooklyn Park – which has been hit by a high rate of foreclosures – make improvements to their homes.

AUGUSTA, Maine – Maine’s credit unions rolled out a new, two-year awareness campaign this month called “Now is the Time,” which encourages consumers to take advantage of the many benefits that credit unions offer.

MADISON, Wis. – Membership growth slowed last month from its record pace, but not until credit unions across the nation added a near all-time best of about 2.4 million members for the year, according to preliminary estimates by CUNA.

RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees CU on Friday said it will deposit $25 million into a charitable trust to benefit the National CU Foundation and the Carolinas CU Foundation.

WICHITA, Kan. – Wall Street’s leading lobby group told a federal appeals court Friday that numerous claims brought by NCUA against underwriters of failed securities sold to corporate credit unions – some of them filed as many as seven years after the sale – could have broad ramifications for the securities industry as a whole and should be rejected.

WASHINGTON – Republican senators on Friday filed a bill that would block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from enforcing or implementing a host of new mortgage and credit card regulations until a new director is confirmed by the Senate – intensifying the chess game over the fledgling consumer agency.

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans massed again today in opposition to the nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, insisting that President Obama agree to their terms for a five-person board to head the agency before they vote to confirm a director.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Last year’s merger of Southeast Corporate FCU into Corporate One FCU, creating one of four major surviving national corporate credit unions, was accomplished with up to $15 million of financial assistance from NCUA to help make up for potential shortfalls due to troubled Southeast investments.

NEW YORK – A U.S. appeals court yesterday declined to hear a review of a lower court’s preliminary approval of the landmark antitrust suit against Visa and MasterCard, insisting it won’t hear the appeal until a final decision is rendered by the lower court.

SAN DIEGO – Mitek Systems reported a $1.4 million loss for its fiscal first quarter yesterday, amid declining revenue related to last year’s split with insurance giant USAA.

MINNEAPOLIS – FICO, maker of the ubiquitous credit score, reported a 22% decline in earnings for its fiscal first quarter to $23.4 million, affected by $2.2 million in restructuring and acquisition-related charges.

PURCHASE, N.Y. – MasterCard on Thursday said fourth quarter earnings surged by 18% to $605 million, as worldwide transactions on its cards rose by 20%.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – New Mexico Educators FCU is paying members a $4 million special dividend, with members who maintained certain deposit loan balances and participated in the credit union’s Earn Your Return program receiving payouts ranging from $25 to $1,000.

BOCA RATON, Fla. – IBM Southeast Employees’ FCU has signed CBRE Group as its exclusive agency to manage its 16-property real estate portfolio of owned and leased office and branch facilities in Florida and Georgia.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. – United FCU has contracted with nCinco for the company’s Bank Operating System nCommercial to improve efficiency and boost productivity and profitability gains.

WASHINGTON – Mortgage rates moved higher this week as Treasury rates trended higher last week, according to Freddie Mac.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Ukrainian FCU has acquired Ukrainian Home Dnipro FCU, a single-branch, $9-million Buffalo credit union.

CLEVELAND – A local restaurant owner was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday and ordered to pay $1.7 million in restitution for taking out fraudulent loans from St. Paul Croatian FCU, the one-time $240-million credit union that collapsed in 2010 amid the biggest credit union fraud ever.