WASHINGTON – Credit unions celebrated yesterday when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it was expanding the exemption criteria for its new mortgage servicing rules – but that celebration may have been premature.

HOUSTON – El Paso Corporation FCU said last year’s takeover of its corporate sponsor by pipeline giant Kinder Morgan forced the $125 million credit union to seek a merger mate and has asked regulators for permission to combine with $335 million First Service CU.

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Authorities are searching for two male armed robbery suspects after a shoot-out in a parking lot during a Brink's truck delivery to a Space Coast CU here this morning.

WASHINGTON – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continued its rewrite of the rules covering mortgage transactions by setting new rules this morning governing servicing, the latest effort at curbing the abuses recorded during the mortgage crisis.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – G. Howard Shreve, one of the founders of $150-million Associated School Employees CU and who served on its board for 52 years, passed away Monday at 86.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Service One CU announced the hiring of Garth Griese, an experienced credit union veteran, as president and CEO of the $115-million credit union.

GADSDEN, Ala. – Family Savings FCU has switched to a state charter, easing the way for the $200-million credit union to serve more potential members in Alabama and Georgia.

APPLE VALLEY, Minn. – Wings Financial CU has signed with Geezeo to implement the company’s personal financial management system.

MIAMI – Dade County FCU has signed with Auto Financial Group of Houston to offer the company’s DrivingSense balloon loan program.

ST. LOUIS – Anheuser-Busch Employees’ Credit Union and its American Eagle CU division paid its first-ever special dividend for members yesterday, returning almost $1.2 million to 69,000 members.

ATLANTA – An Internet security company called JOAO Bock Transaction Systems, LLC on Wednesday filed a patent infringement suit against Georgia’s Own CU, the latest in a proliferating number of patent claims targeting credit unions, banks and other financial service providers.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – FICO, creator of the credit score that bears its name, is moving its headquarters from Minneapolis to San Jose to be closer to the Silicon Valley’s engineering talent pool and where the company began 57 years ago.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Share One, Inc., yesterday announced that Terri Van Frank, its senior vice president and chief operating officer who joined the CUSO as an administrative assistant in 1982, has been named CEO and chairman of the board.

NEWARK, Del. – Sallie Mae yesterday reported 22% growth in private student loans for 2012, helping push annual earnings up 48% to $939 million.

WATERLOO, Ontario – Research In Motion announced today that Visa has approved its mobile-payment solution for its Blackberry smartphones.

WICHITA, Kan. – The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association told the federal appeals court yesterday it will be filing a brief on behalf of several Wall Street banks that say NCUA waited too long to file billions of dollars in civil claims over mortgage-backed securities the banks sold to five failed corporate credit unions, as the stakes in the huge legal battle grow more apparent.

MADISON, Wis. – Summit CU said this morning it has opened the first-of-its-kind “Inspiration Branch,” which will allow members to visualize their dreams and goals in 3-D.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A story in the early version of yesterday’s CU Journal Daily Briefing incorrectly stated that Max FCU has hired a new CEO, when it should have stated the credit union hired a new CFO.

ATLANTA – Processing giant First Data Corp. said its CEO Jon Judge plans to retire from the company for undisclosed health reasons.

BOSTON – A teller at Metro West CU was arrested and charged with participating in a scheme to steal more than $210,000 in tax refund checks that had been fraudulently obtained by filing false tax returns with the IRS.