Several CEOs–many holding down pay raises throughout the CU and finding ways to operate on shrinking budgets–are unhappy with NCUA’s decision to hike the agency’s budget by 6.1% next year.

Credit unions that strive only to be logical and follow the “rules” will remain stuck behind innovators, according to Frans Johansson.

One year after the League of Southeastern CUs launched its new cooperative image campaign, consumer awareness of credit unions in Alabama and Florida has doubled.

Thanks to issues near (America’s “fiscal cliff”) and far (Europe’s debt bubble), the economy will go through three to five more years of “modest ups and downs.”

CO-OP Financial Services expects to go live by December with several new emerging payments technologies.

Consumers will spend 3.5% to 4% more this holiday season than last, according to a new survey from CUNA and the Consumer Federation of America.

While some CUs are reporting strong volume in HARP loans, others say they’ve seen little activity at all.

A number of credit unions that say that have “embraced” the government’s HARP program say it has hugged them back by boosting lending.

Every credit union wants to be a consumer’s primary financial institution. But Neil Goldman said winning the PFI race requires a reality check, because many consumers do not have great views of credit unions.

After struggling with poor financial performance and a limited rural market, Glenvil Cooperative CU has taken an unusual move and agreed to be acquired by First York Bankcorp, a holding company of Cornerstone Bank.

This issue, Credit Union Journal’s Best Practices issue, seeks to be a Best Practice itself.

The 16-day, post-election “lame duck” legislative session is “critical” for credit unions, according to Bill Cheney.

United Labor CU here has seen its lending increase by 10% since it began offering financial education courses for union members 18 months ago, a move that has earned it a “Best Practice” Award from Credit Union Journal.

Lots of businesses put up lights around the Christmas holidays. Then there’s Streator Onized CU, which has found a way to really draw attention to itself.

It wasn’t all that long ago that San Francisco FCU’s planning horizon did not extend beyond one year. The one thing it could see in front of it, however, was that it was losing members.

Pinal County FCU has turned around two negatives familiar to many CUs–lack of quality member feedback and low cross-sales ratios–and made them positives with a signature pad.

Since implementation of what it termed “aggressive” fraud mitigation strategies, $3.3-billion Mountain America Credit Union has reduced hard-dollar fraud losses while more at-risk dollars in fraudulently accessed accounts were protected.

What began as an ATM cleaning and maintenance operation at CFE FCU has evolved into a compliance and loss-prevention strategy that has earned the CU a Best Practices Award from Credit Union Journal.

One small CU here has effectively used shared branching to make it more competitive in a marketplace where size certainly counts.

Twenty five Indiana credit unions this year have donated $354,497 and 8,662 hours to support their communities.