OAKLAND, Calif. – NCUA said the purchase and assumption of Oakland Municipal CU announced Friday night will entail the sole-branch of the one-time $130 million credit union being purchased and operated as a branch of Western FCU, a $1.5 billion credit union based in Manhattan Beach, which already operates several branches in the Bay Area.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA is working with bank regulators on a proposal that would realign the way big credit unions award annual bonuses to top executives, tying their compensation to the long-term performance of the credit union.

SAN FRANCISCO – NCUA and state regulators today closed Oakland Municipal CU and assigned the remnants of the one-time $130 million credit union to Western FCU, the $1.5 billion Manhattan Beach-based credit union. Oakland Municipal, the first credit union failure of the year, lost $4.9 million for 2009 and another $900,000 for 2010, and was inadequately capitalized. The credit union was chartered in 1936 by Oakland city employees and expanded to serve all residents of the city and of San Leandro.

IMGCAP(1)]

The credit union regulator, which recently ran a 60-foot-high banner in Times Square, has hired a new specialist in social media outreach as a way to ensure an active presence in the social media sphere. The agency said Kenzie Snowden, who helped design a social media campaign at the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office , will focus on active communication with key audiences through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other forms of e-communication. Snowden will enhance and expand the NCUA information distribution network by utilizing constantly evolving social media, marketing and Internet communication tools. “The Social Media and Outreach Specialist position is about the future,” stated NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz. “NCUA is continuing to explore all avenues to enhance communication with consumers, the credit union industry, and other audiences. I look forward to NCUA reaching new audiences, and new levels of transparency, through the outreach that will be initiated by our Social Media program.”

YUMA, Ariz. — NCUA said this morning the growing losses related to the massive member business loan fraud at AEA FCU erased all capital at the one-time $410 million credit union and forced it to report a $31 million loss for 2010.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA ruled that federal credit unions may offer a variety of correspondent services to other credit unions, including check collection, ACH origination and receipt, wire transfers, coin and currency, and a line of credit, under existing regulations.

DURHAM, N.C. – Self-Help CU has awarded a $2.8 million loan to Neuse Charter School in nearby Selma, N.C., that will be guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Community Facilities program.

HOUSTON – State regulators this week said they have approved the combination of Right Choice CU into First Service CU, creating a $300 million credit union, one of this city’s largest.

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – A former systems analyst with Power Financial CU was barred from the credit union industry for a scheme to steal an estimated $228,000 of the credit union’s IT equipment and keeping the proceeds.

MELBOURNE, Fla. – Space Coast CU and the Melbourne & Beaches Music Marathon are partnering for a running-themed VISA debit card featuring a group of runners competing in the 2010 Melbourne Marathon Weekend, timed to coincide with the annual race being held this weekend.

WASHINGTON – Mortgage rates barely budged this week, after rising slightly the previous three weeks, according to Freddie Mac.

DULUTH, Ga. – ATM maker NCR reported yesterday it broke out of the red to the tune of a $39 million net for the fourth quarter and a $134 million net for the year.

BROOKFIELD, Wis. – Fiserv reported a slight decline in fourth quarter earnings of 2%, to $116 million, as revenue growth was almost flat.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – NYCE Payments on Thursday said it will begin offering CashEdge’s Popmoney person-to-person payment solution to its more than 3,000 credit union and bank customers.

PLANO, Texas – The combined entity of Southwest Corporate (Bridge) FCU and Georgia Corporate FCU will have a new name: Catalyst Corporate FCU.

DENVER – Payments processing giant First Data Corp. plans to support the Federal Reserve’s proposed new debit interchange rules with a two-tiered pricing structure for debit-interchange rates on its Star PIN-debit network, the second major processor, including Visa, to support a two-tiered system.

PURCHASE, N.Y. – MasterCard yesterday reported a 41.5% surge in fourth quarter earnings, fueled mainly by continued fast growth in its debit cards business.

STAMFORD, Conn. – VantageScore, a credit score developed by three credit bureaus, said yesterday it was awarded a U.S. Patent for its methods and systems of “characteristic leveling.”

SANTA ANA, Calif. – Authorities yesterday were searching for a tall, thin robber who held up a SchoolsFirst FCU branch here, which may have been his seventh heist in the area in recent weeks.