LENDING CONTINUES DECLINE, ACCORDING TO CUNA STATS

Webinar On Weathering Storm

From the reporter's notebook following CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC) last week, and appearing in order reflective of a cluttered mind.

CUs have been put in a difficult situation in recent years. While the core beliefs of credit unions are to put members first and help all members, they also need to comply with the accounting and regulatory requirements.

Re: "NCUA Requires Opt-In For Free Checking Fees," CU Journal Daily Briefing, Feb. 28. Let's get the facts straight without embellishing. The opinion did not mention anything about "opt-in." It also did NOT take issue with the program itself, only the fact that you cannot add a monthly fee and still call the account "free."

PIERRE, S.D. – Credit union and bank groups will file a brief as early as today asking a federal court to block implementation of the debit interchange fee provisions of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act. The so-called friend of the court brief by CUNA, NAFCU the American Bankers Association, and the Independent Community Bankers of America, will be filed as part of a suit by TCF Bank challenging provisions of the Durbin amendment that will set caps on interchange fees collected by financial institutions. The amicus brief cites problems with the Durbin amendment, including the directive that the Federal Reserve set “reasonable and proportional rates” on interchange, that the language does not allow for all reasonable costs incurred in setting the allowable fees and that the requirements on routing and exclusivity are problematic, according to Mary Dunn, senior regulatory lobbyist for CUNA. TCF, in a suit filed last October, claims the Durbin amendment illegally interferes with the $18 billion bank’s activities in a market that has been competitive and open by imposing unconstitutional limitations on the ability of TCF and other financial institutions to recover their costs for providing a service crucial to bank depository customers today. TCF is Minnesota’s second largest bank holding company but filed the suit in South Dakota where it is incorporated.PIERRE, S.D. – Credit union and bank groups will file a brief as early as today asking a federal court to block implementation of the debit interchange fee provisions of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act.

FERNDALE, Wash. – A woman suspected of pension fraud was arrested when she tried to open an account at Industrial CU in her dead mother’s name while disguised as her mother.

ONTARIO, Calif. – CU Direct Corp. said Friday it will pay its 91 credit union shareholders a 3% dividend for 2010, a total of $1.4 million.

MUSKEGO, Wis. – Corporate Central CU is the latest credit union to offer “Smart Option” private student loans through Sallie Mae.

DENVER – Rocky Mountain Law Enforcement FCU has launched Kasasa incentive-based checking accounts.

KETTERING, Ohio – Day Air CU will offer members closing and down payment grants of up to $5,000 each as a result of a $200,000 award form the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati.

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Columbia CU has sold the 20-acre Two Creeks townhouse development, located beside the Camas Meadows Golf Club, for $3.4 million.

HONOLULU – Fast-growing Aloha Pacific FCU has agreed to merge into it $15 million Media Hawaii FCU.

RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees’ CU is planning to open three new branches in Greensboro later this year or in early 2012 as part of a plan to expand its footprint in the region.

NEW LONDON, Conn. – Uninsured members of New London Security FCU filed suit against NCUA last week seeking $4 million and damages in the 2008 failure of the $13 million credit union where the elderly investment manager leaped to his death from an 11-story building as authorities were preparing to arrest him for fraud.

SAN ANTONIO – Harland Clarke reported Friday its core check-printing business continues to erode but refinancing huge debt incurred in the separate takeovers of John H. Harland Co. and Clarke American helped keep it in the black for the fourth quarter and for fiscal 2010.

WASHINGTON – Credit unions and banks are urging the Federal Reserve to exclude ATMs transactions from the new rules setting price caps on debit fees.

BATON ROUGE, La. – A group of Ukrainian hackers siphoned almost $527,000 from LES FCU in September 2009 by using malware to transfer funds from the account the credit union held with Capital One Bank, according to a suit filed last week in federal court here.

OGEMA, Wis. – NCUA and state regulators took over and liquidated tiny Wisconsin Heights CU this afternoon and assigned the member accounts of the fourth credit union failure of 2011 to CoVantage CU, the $860 million credit union based in nearby Antigo. Wisconsin Heights has just 501 members and $713,000 in assets at liquidation and never reached $1 million in assets since its 1963 chartering. It had no full-time employees.OGEMA, Wis. – NCUA and state regulators took over and liquidated tiny Wisconsin Heights CU this afternoon and assigned the member accounts of the fourth credit union failure of 2011 to CoVantage CU, the $860 million credit union based in nearby Antigo.

A statement by Terry Field, CFO of Vermont State Employees FCU, in the March 3 edition of the CU Journal Daily Briefing should have correctly stated that VSEFCU has not incurred any losses due to its investment in EasCorp.