CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – NCUA on Friday said it approved the conversion of Navy Army FCU to a state charter, the biggest conversion to state charter ever approved.

BELTSVILLE, Md. – N.A.R.C. FCU, which serves a handful of federal agencies, was approved by NCUA to convert to a TIP charter serving more than 350,000 federal employees and their family members in the greater Washington area.

RICHLAND, Wash. – HAPO Community CU opened its first branch in Oregon Friday, in Hermiston.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Central FCU, WesCorp FCU and other troubled corporate credit unions accessed the Federal Reserve’s special Term Auction Facility for huge amounts of emergency loans as they sought liquidity in the face of mounting losses on their mortgage backed securities, according to new data released by the Fed.

EUGENE, Ore. – NCUA Friday night liquidated O.U.R FCU, a one-time $5-million credit union it has been running under conservatorship since October, and assigned the remnants to Northwest Community CU, a $675-million credit union in nearby Springfield, Ore.

SAN FRANCISCO – Occupy San Francisco, an offshoot of the national protest movement that began as Occupy Wall Street, which has embraced credit unions and the cooperative structure, announced plans to charter their own credit union to attract San Francisco residents, businesses, and local non-profit and city agencies to keep their money out of the big banks and to redistribute their savings locally.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – In perhaps the crowning moment of the Bank Transfer Day movement, officials with Most Holy Trinity Church today will deposit $3 million of church funds withdrawn from Bank of America into the new branch of Self-Help FCU, a start-up community development credit union.

In Ventura, Calif., $542-million Ventura County CU has seen Bank Transfer Day transform into Bank Transfer Month. "The question is: is this a short-lived situation or is it a tipping point for credit unions?" asked Linda Rossi, SVP-strategic services.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. – NCUA has cleared the acquisition by United FCU of Griffith Savings Bank, the first purchase of a bank by a federally chartered credit union, and the deal now awaits approval by the FDIC.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Two more troubled Las Vegas credit unions will be merged out, the latest in a string of deals that continues to winnow the state’s credit unions, NCUA reported this morning.

PLYMOUTH, Mich. – Community Financial CU is celebrating the holidays this year by surprising local non-profit groups with weekly donations through December totaling $50,000.

GROTON, Conn. – Charter Oak FCU donated 280 turkeys to the Gemma Moran Food Center in New London prior to Thanksgiving, surpassing the 228 given last year.

EUGENE, Ore. – SELCO Community CU, formerly a teachers’ credit union, has given 83 mini-grants of $250 each to area educators.

JACKSON, Miss. – Mississippi Postal Employees FCU has been approved by NCUA to expand its charter to serve all federal government civil industry employees in the state of Mississippi.

BOULDER, Colo. – Elevations CU will be managing a new loan being offered by Boulder County to fund energy efficiency projects for residences.

MIDLAND, Texas – My Community CU has signed with MoneyDesktop to install the company’s personal financial management solutions through online banking.

GERMANTOWN, Md. – Montgomery County Employees FCU has introduced EZ Deposit, a remote deposit function provided by Intuit Financial Services.

WASHINGTON – Mortgage rates remained near record lows this week, with the average for the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate loan clocking in at 4%, according to Freddie Mac.

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Gulf Winds FCU will pay its members a $1 million bonus dividend – an average of $21 per member – to be divvied up to members with share accounts.

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. – Scott CU will be paying members a total of $1.1 million in bonus dividends and loan rebates later this month.