ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said it approved mergers of several more troubled credit unions, including AgFirst FCU, Safeway Los Angeles FCU, Washington Postal Employees FCU, State Center CU and Fort Worth Telco CU.

DEARBORN, Mich. – More than 100,000 members of DFCU Financial will get a big bonus tomorrow, the credit union’s annual Special Patronage Dividend—this year a record $21 million.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The NCUA Board said it has terminated four pilot programs that allowed individual credit unions to engage in the short sale of U.S. Treasuries.

AUSTIN, Texas – A group of Houston, Dallas and Austin-area Muslims has applied to state regulators to charter the first credit union that would be operated under Muslim law, that is a credit union that would be barred from charging interest on loans.

ATLANTA – Delta Community CU said this morning that Hank Halter, a current credit union director and former chief financial officer at its main sponsor, Delta Air Lines, will pilot the $4.3 billion credit union while it searches for a permanent successor to Rick Foley.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – 121 Financial Credit Union said it is moving to a next-generation Web filtering solution from Bloxx, to more effectively manage the Web browsing activity of its staff in 10 locations.

WASHINGTON – Purchases of mortgage loans by Fannie Mae jumped 25% in the month of November to the highest level since the refinancing boom of 2009, when the Federal Reserve first started purchasing agency MBS.

SAN FRANCISCO – For one member of San Francisco FCU here 2013 holds a little something special: free gas.

DALLAS – 2013 will become a lucky year for one member of Neighborhood Credit Union today, when it will award $25,000 as a prize for demonstrating good savings habits – although the member won’t know about it until tomorrow.

MANISTEE, Mich. – Members of Filer Credit Union are starting their new year with a little something extra.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The lawsuit filed by NCUA against the former CEO of Texans Credit Union, David Addison, will have no bearing on a recent business deal the former CEO is involved with regarding the purchase of CNBS LLC, an Overland Park-based credit union investment CUSO, according to Brian Hague, the CUSO’s president and CEO.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Friday issued a report that concluded small issuers of debit cards, including credit unions, have been largely unaffected by new rules that have limited interchange.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Spartanburg Regional FCU led the nation with the lowest average rate on a 30-year mortgage, 2.50%, in the newest analysis released by SNL Research, Charlottesville, Va.

HARBOR, Ore. – NCUA liquidated Chetco FCU on Friday night and assigned the remnants of the one-time $375-million credit union, the year’s 21st failure, to two West Coast credit unions in an unprecedented purchase and assumption agreement.

ABERDEEN, Md. – Credit unions across the country have held “shred days,” but APG FCU here has given away 10 personal shredders to members as part of its “Shred It & Forget It” sweepstakes.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A number of small banks are feasting on branches being sold by Bank of America.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Cencorp said it is expecting the NCUA board to vote during Q1 on its merger with Alloya Corporate.

HARRISBURG, Penn. – Pennsylvania’s credit union leaders are listing unemployment and lost wages, economic recovery, and the possibility of another recession/depression as their top three concerns for 2013.

KANSAS CITY – K.C. Police Credit Union will pay the first dividend in its 78-year history on Dec. 31.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A new analysis shows California is taking in approximately 41% of the approximately $20-billion that the five biggest mortgage servicers agreed in February to provide to homeowners in 49 states, in order to settle claims related to alleged abuses of consumers.