MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. – Kennedy Space Center FCU said Maureen Lowe, who started at the credit union as a teller in 1981 and worked her way to the corner office, is retiring as CEO of the $580-million credit union.

AUSTIN, Texas – Malauzai Software, a start-up mobile banking software provider fresh off a marketing deal with Catalyst Corporate FCU, has raised $2.3 million in capital.

SEAL BEACH, Calif. – SaveDaily, a new mutual fund investing platform being marketed to credit unions, yesterday said it raised $3 million in new venture funds.

MINNEAPOLIS – FICO unveiled the latest version of its FICO Debt Manager platform for collections and recovery, which it said integrates with the Telrock mobile and digital payments application SmartCollect to increase the speed and efficiency of collections.

GLASTONBURY, Conn. – Private equity giant The Carlyle Group is soliciting offers for Open Solutions Inc., the provider of back-office services for credit unions it took private in 2007, according to Wall Street sources.

HARRISBURG, Penn. – A federal court here dismissed a suit last week alleging Pennsylvania State Employees CU violated provisions of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act after the credit union produced evidence suggesting that someone had removed the legally required notice affixed to the ATM disclosing the fees to be charged to non-member users of the cash machine.

Wendy Lokken, CEO of Lasertec, believes it is more important than ever for credit unions to 'go green' by utilizing all-electronic marketing.

David Foss, President of ProfitStars, is concerned that while more credit unions are choosing to spend money, the investments being made are not all driving the bottom line.

Against the backdrop of improving ratios, Sam Kilmer sees a bottom-line opportunity from investments in loan origination and member relationship management systems.

Credit unions are seeing the economic value of investing in advanced currency, check and coin processing technologies as a way to boost their bottom lines.

There isn't a better way to drive the bottom line today than member business lending, as long as you do it carefully and with the right resources.

Investments in real-time fraud management tools are seeing a strong payback, according to CO-OP Financial Services.

More credit unions are now placing their branding on existing ATMs to extend their reach without investing in new machines.

In at least one scenario, for many credit unions the bottom line is increasingly about letting someone else carry the burden.

Perhaps the biggest news when it comes to making investments to improve the bottom line is that more CUs are actually doing it.

First Community FCU is reporting it has paid out more than $172,500 in rewards and prizes through the "Skip the Fee-Swipe for Free" debit card program launched in October 2011.

Open Solutions Inc. reported it now has available more than 100 apps in its DNAappstore. Approximately half of those apps were created by its client credit unions and banks for use on the company's DNA core platform.

The economy may be improving and several CFOs indicated their credit unions are seeing double-digit loan increases, but that hasn't lessened the importance of managing margin.

After two years of focusing on cost cutting and expense management, credit unions are beginning to invest again in ambitious, long-term projects aimed at both better serving members and enhancing the bottom line.

McGraw-Hill Federal Credit Union has launched a multi-pronged solar energy awareness campaign that includes a website, Facebook updates, and presentations at the CU’s Financial Literacy Series.