MADISON, Wis. – CUNA Mutual Group announced it has hired Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg, the man responsible for the restructuring of troubled bond insurer Ambac Securities, as head of its mortgage insurance business.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The bankruptcy of Centrix Financial continues to take a toll on credit union participants in the firm’s subprime indirect loan program, with lawsuits by borrowers who had their vehicles repossessed spreading.

CLEVELAND – The former CEO of failed St. Paul Croatian FCU, believed to be in hiding under the federal witness protection program, told authorities he accepted millions of dollars in kickbacks in exchange for arranging tens of millions of dollars in loans to members who had no intention of paying the loans back.

DALLAS – The Rev. Marl Walz, a 62-year-old pastor at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff, was taken aback Tuesday morning when Chet Kimmel, the CEO of his credit union, Neighborhood CU, showed up at his door with a $25,000 check.

INDIANAPOLIS – A story in the Jan. 4 Credit Union Journal Daily Briefing incorrectly stated that Michigan’s Capital Community CU suffered losses on loans backed by life insurance polices. The loans, which recently became delinquent, are the subject of a suit between FORUM CU and DFCU Financial, which acquired CapCom in 2009. CapCom failed because of losses on speculative Florida real estate loan participations it bought from Colorado’s Norlarco CU.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A member of Kirtland FCU last week pleaded guilty to stealing $75,000 in Social Security benefits that were paid into his dead grandfather’s credit union account for six years after the death of the man.

JANESVILLE, Ill. – Blackhawk Community CU has named Sherri Stumpf, chief operating officer at Minneapolis’s TruStone Financial FCU, as president and CEO of the $320 million credit union.

DANVILLE, Ill. – Education Personnel FCU, a $35 million credit union, said it signed with Open Solutions Inc. to provide it with the company’s DNA-sme core processing system.

SAN ANTONIO – Firstmark CU has chosen Geezeo to provide it with the company’s personal financial management and integrated marketing platform.

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. – Howard County Teachers Association FCU has signed a multi-year contract with CRI Solutions Inc. to provide its members with its GAP debt protection product.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Fort Financial CU has signed an agreement to implement the XP2 account processing platform from Fiserv.

PEORIA, Ill. – CEFCU has signed with CU Campus Resources, a Madison, Wis., CUSO owned by University of Wisconsin CU, to offer private student loans.

DECATUR, Ill. – A former personal banker for Earthmover CU this week pleaded guilty to stealing more than $350,000 from the accounts of mostly elderly, sick and deceased members and gambling away the money.

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Hanscom FCU returned $730,000 to its member-owners at the end of 2010 in the form of a loyalty dividend.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – A former downtown club owner and one-time local political figure yesterday pleaded guilty to lying about his income to obtain more than $2 million in loans from local lenders, including $1 million from Truliant FCU.

YAKIMA, Wash. – Yakima Valley CU on Wednesday said it has agreed to combine with $170 million Catholic CU to create a credit union with almost $500 million in assets serving 50,000 members.

WASHINGTON – President Obama signed a bill Tuesday that will create a congressional study of the affects of the corporate credit union meltdown and whether it will affect taxpayers.

CLEVELAND – A federal grand jury this afternoon charged the leader of a criminal gang in Macedonia with siphoning $2.5 million from St. Paul Croatian FCU, the one-time $240 million Cleveland credit union that failed last year amid one of the biggest losses ever for a natural person credit union.

DEARBORN, Mich. – About 85,000 members of DFCU Financial got a New Year’s bonus today with their share of the credit union’s fifth consecutive Special Patronage Dividend–$19 million in total.

LAUREL, Md. – Robert “Bob” Byroad, who built the National Security Agency’s credit union into what is now $2.3 billion Tower FCU, died on Christmas Day at 81.