WASHINGTON – Industry experts are predicting that the Federal Reserve’s proposal to cap debit interchange fees at 12 cents per transaction could lower revenues for credit unions and banks by billions of dollars a year.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve this afternoon proposed rules aimed at lowering interchange fees on debit transactions that could cap fees at 12 cents per transaction, about what the current median cost of authorization, clearance and settlement is.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The NCUA Board this morning approved a new financial literacy rule for the nation's 75,000 volunteer credit union directors requiring for the first time that each director obtain a minimum ability to read a credit union income statement and balance sheet.

WALL STREET – The FDIC plans to sell almost $1 billion of securities tied to residential and commercial real-estate debt once held by failed banks, which will be federally guaranteed, just like NCUA’s corporate bonds.

HOUGHTON LAKES, Mich. – North Central Area CU has teamed up with Houghton Lake Schools to create the “Elementary Bobcat Branch.”

MINNEAPOLIS – FICO announced yesterday it has been awarded eight new patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for advances in credit scoring, credit account management, credit fraud management, insurance fraud management and other areas, bringing its portfolio of U.S. patents to more than 100.

HOUSTON – JSC FCU is the latest credit union to move its item processing from a third party provider to an in-house environment.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. – Ongoing Operations, a business disaster CUSO, is partnering with Cloudworks, a provider of hosted applications, virtual desktop solutions and hosted exchange, to create a new suite of production grade IT offerings specifically for credit unions.

SAN FRANCISCO – Patelco CU, which is in the process of moving to suburban Pleasanton, sold its south financial district headquarters to New Urban Properties for $10 million.

SALT LAKE CITY – Texas credit union giant Security Service FCU, which carved out a new Colorado market earlier this year with the acquisition of Norbel Community CU, is establishing itself for the first time in Utah with this week’s deal for Beehive CU.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA has cleared credit unions to offer gift cards and other cash inducements to help draw members to the sparsely-attended annual meetings.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said this afternoon that its corporate credit union resuscitation plan will require the surviving corporates to hold pledged capital in escrow accounts for the short-term so that all capital may be refunded to members if their corporate does not achieve the agency’s new minimum capital standards by Oct. 2011.

WASHINGTON – The American Bankers Association and several banking groups filed papers yesterday challenging a recent ruling by the Department of Labor that says banks, credit unions and other lenders must apply overtime pay and regulations to most employees who originate residential mortgages.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. – Southeast Financial FCU said it will split the CEO’s job between two senior vice presidents upon next year’s retirement of John Simmonds, the current president and CEO of the $415 million credit union.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – One member of Altura CU won an Apple iPad for using her Altura Visa debit card.

BETHPAGE, N.Y. – Bethpage FCU has agreed to pay Suffolk County $2.1 million to name the minor league baseball team Long Island Ducks' home field Bethpage Ballpark until 2020.

SAN FRANCISCO – Visa said it is making Christmas shopping easier and more convenient for budget-conscious consumers by offering the Visa Mobile application for the iPhone.

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Google said it has acquired Zetawire – a Canada-based startup which owns patents to implement NFC-based technology for mobile banking, advertising, and other uses.

MONETT, Mo. – Jack Henry & Associates said Experian’s QAS has joined its Vendor Integration Program, which will add the address verification software and services to Symitar’s Episys core processing system for credit unions.

ELGIN, Ill. – Corporate America Family CU is one of the first credit unions to offer person-to-person payments through S1 Corp. and its PM Systems subsidiary’s new deal with PayPal.