ALBANY, N.Y. – SEFCU is the latest lender to foreclosure on well-known Glens Falls developer Sophie Cefalu and her son, developer Charles Cefalu.

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. – Scott CU yesterday said it wants to relocate its corporate headquarters to the nearby city of Edwardsville, inside the Gateway Commerce Center Enterprise Zone.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A new report issued by NCUA Friday says there was virtually no oversight by the board or supervisory committee of Central Valley FCU as the CEO of the $8 million, low-income credit union stole some $9 million over the years to finance her personal business and other expenses.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Pentagon FCU is promoting its PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express Card with an “Amazing Escapes” contest that will provide winners with travel packages worth more than $12,000 for purchases of $500.

WASHINGTON – CUNA on Monday released audited financials to show the trade association erased two years of red ink with $6.8 million in net income for 2009.

SAN ANTONIO – In a rare supervisory action, Air Force FCU has agreed to divest itself of loans and deposits associated with members that were added to the credit union’s rolls in contravention of its field of membership.

DALLAS – Broad-based economic indicators may be trending upwards but you’d never know it by asking your average credit union CEO – with Southwest Corporate FCU’s first quarter CU CEO Confidence Index sinking still more to the lowest point of its seven-year history.

BARTLESVILLE, Okla.-The computer network at 66 FCU here was sluggish at best; in the early morning business hours, tellers began to struggle with routine tasks such as retrieving e-mail or pulling up member accounts.

LIBBY, Mont.-The far northwest corner of Montana felt the sting of the economic downturn before most areas of the U.S., thanks to falloffs in both mining and logging.

NEW YORK-Oral arguments were heard last week in court here as the state sought to dismiss Hudson Valley FCU's challenge of a New York state assessment required on credit union mortgage loans. The hearing in the Supreme Court of New York County centered on whether a federal credit union (and its members) must pay a mortgage registration fee to the state to record its mortgages. Both CUNA and the Credit Union Association of New York have filed friend of the court briefs in the case, which Poughkeepsie-based VFCU filed in Mary of 2009. The credit union, which is arguing it is exempt from the mortgage recording tax, reported it has paid approximately $3 million in such taxes on "no closing cost" loans to members and is seeking a refund of the tax in a separate proceeding. The state is arguing that FCUs are not federal instrumentalities and must pay the tax.

NEW YORK-NCUA and the Department of Treasury have agreed to modify viability standards for credit unions applying to the Community Development Capital Initiative following a request by the National Federation of Community Development CUs. The agency has informed the Federation that it has "adjusted its evaluation criteria with respect to non performing loans... [and the] new formula will give greater weight to LICU's cushion against delinquencies even in worst-case scenarios... Preliminary review of the latest data indicates that by using NCUA's new formula, additional LICUs will qualify for CDCI without matching funds." The CDCI program allows low-income CUs certified as CDFIs to obtain up to 3.5% of their assets as secondary capital, which counts toward their regulatory net worth. Eligibility for the CDCI program is determined by NCUA in conjunction with Treasury. For info: www.natfed.org.

Elan, IBT Partner To Offer EFT Solutions

April

SAN DIEGO-After five years of development, a new core system created by the man behind two other major CU processing systems is about to take wing.

LAKE BLUFF, Ill.-Without capital credit unions will not play a significant role in the nation's economic recovery and, moreover, a large number will fail if they cannot access some form of alternative capital.

WASHINGTON-Despite unanimous support from the three-member NCUA Board, NCUA has backed off its previous efforts to get a risk-based capital system and supplemental capital authority passed in Congress, virtually dooming any effort at capital reform for this year.

Jason Rogers was named COO of Mountain America Financial Services, a CUSO of Mountain America CU, Salt Lake City.

Texas Regulator Bid To Cap Payday Loan Fees Comes At Bad Time

AUSTIN, Texas-Amplify FCU here tossed out a forsaken, high-maintenance sales system in January for a solution that takes the bull by the horns.

AUSTIN, Texas-The Econiq frontline sales solution may boost sales at Amplify FCU, but the icing on the cake is Econiq's suggestions about staffing levels, said Pierre Cardenas, SVP-retail.