WASHINGTON – Fannie Mae announced a new policy yesterday aimed at encouraging troubled homeowners to find alternatives to foreclosure by banning those who walk away from getting new loans for seven years.

HAMILTON, Ohio – AllWealth CU said it has signed with Harland Financial Solutions to implement the company’s UltraData Enterprise core processing system.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The unexpected departure of Greylock FCU’s well-known CEO two weeks ago has provided an extraordinary opportunity for Marilyn Sperling, executive vice president of the $1.3 billion credit union named interim CEO, who started her financial services career 35 years ago as a teller at local Berkshire Bank & Trust.

SAN ANTONIO – Officials with Air Force FCU hope a new field of membership approved by NCUA will help it overcome a rare citation by the federal regulator for violation of its own field of membership and minimize an unprecedented order to divest loans and deposits of ineligible members.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA reported yesterday it approved another 20 credit union mergers, 12 of the involving troubled credit unions.

APPLE VALLEY, Minn. – Wings Financial CU, the state’s largest credit union, said yesterday it has agreed to acquire Highgrove Community FCU, a troubled one-time $42 million credit union.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – CO-OP Financial Services announced yesterday it is test-piloting software that will allow credit unions to effectively create shared branches and all their functionality from existing NCR ATMs.

CARPENTERIA, Calif. – Interchange fees actually declined last year because of the recession’s effect on retail sales, but are far larger than previously believed, almost $63 billion for 2009, according to the Nilson Report, a credit card newsletter.

WASHINGTON – Several lawmakers were working on behalf of credit unions last night in a final effort to soften the interchange amendment in the bank reform bill, even after participants in the House-Senate conference hammering out the final legislation agreed to include the interchange provision.

DAYTON, Ohio — A man who tried unsuccessfully to kidnap a credit union manager in order to force entry into her credit union, was sentenced last week to 15 years behind bars for another credit union robbery, of Abbey CU, in Vandalia.

OWOSSO, Mich. — Security CU is holding a bone marrow drive Friday to aid a local family whose 14-month daughter is battling cancer.

PORTLAND, Ore. — CU Business Group said yesterday it has signed with NetDeposit, a unit of Utah's Zions Bank, to provide remote deposit capture services to credit unions.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — CO-OP Financial Services said yesterday it has completed the acquisition of Members United Corporate FCU's Share System ATM and dbeit processing CUSO.

SAN FRANCISCO — Sierra Point CU has contracted with Harland Financial Solutions for hosted core processing of UltraData Enterprise.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois Employees CU has contracted with DocuSign to provide it with online electronic signature services.

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University Financial CU has applied to the city for several tax incentives under an Obsolete Property Rehabilitation incentive for its new downtown branch at the site of the former Dimitri's Restaurant.

TAMPA, Fla. — Four teenagers will serve as temporary bat boy or other ceremonial positions or other positions when the Tampa Bay Rays play the New York Yankees at Tropicana Field next week, courtesy of GTE FCU's youth membership drive.

DALLAS — Five individuals, including a former manager at Southwest Corporate FCU, were charged yesterday with operating a counterfeit check scam that siphoned as much as $100,000 from 62 members at credit unions across Texas.

NEW YORK — The National Federation of Community Development CUs hopes to tap the Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions fund this year for as much as $2 million to help recapitalize its members who are being badly hit by growing NCUA assessments for the corporate credit union bailout.

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders neared agreement on a consumer financial protection agency, new standards for the sale of mortgages on the secondary market and the controversial amendment directing the Federal Reserve to set fees on debit card transactions, as negotiations on the bank reform bill sped towards a conclusion yesterday.