ST. LOUIS – Four lenders, including First Community CU, have put up $9.6 million in bridge loans to help finance the $27 million redevelopment of a former Coca-Cola syrup plant in the Carondelet neighborhood in South St. Louis.

MADISON, Wis. and WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Credit Union Executives Society and Credit Union Journal are in discussions to combine two of the most popular conference and learning events in the industry – CUES Experience and the Journal’s Grow Show.

WASHINGTON – CUNA reportedly has narrowed its CEO search to a handful of candidates and is expected to name a successor to Dan Mica as early as the first week of May.

WARRENVILLE, Ill. – Several corporate credit unions are still counting the losses from investments with failed brokerage Lehman Brothers, with at least two, Members United Corporate FCU and Southwest Corporate FCU, tallying tens of millions of losses.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Two former employees of South Carolina FCU this week confessed to siphoning as much as $400,000 from inactive accounts that belonged to a dead woman, deployed military personnel and others.

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Card Services for Credit Unions and Visa Inc. have made a $50,000 gift to support the National Credit Union Foundation’s outreach programs.

TOLEDO, Ohio – The FBI and local police are hunting for a man they believe is responsible for five armed robberies in recent months, including three at branches of Sun FCU.

DETROIT – Credit Union ONE gave $17,000 to the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, which will help fund the purchase of a new bladder scanner.

BROCKTON, Mass. – HarborOne CU said it contributed $10,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of Brockton to help meet its operating needs and to support the George W. Baldwin Educational Enhancement Fund, a fund designed and dedicated to create a pathway to college for the club's young members.

RIVERWOODS, Ill. – Discover Financial Services yesterday said it is offering $500 million of 7% subordinated notes for its Discover Bank unit.

ATLANTA – Equifax on Tuesday said it has joined with FICO to offer financial institutions a new analytic solution to help lenders better anticipate account and portfolio risk in light of shifting economic events.

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. – GrooveCar said two local credit unions, Branch 6000 NALC CU in Amityville and Transit FCU in Ozone Park, have signed on to its CU Xpress Lease program.

WALTHAM, Mass. – IMN, a provider of e-communications solutions, has added a trackable social networking feature to its Credit Union On, an e-newsletter.

FRANKENMUTH, Mich. – Frankenmuth CU yesterday announced it has contracted with Auto Financial Group to implement the company’s DrivingSense as both a direct and an indirect lending option for the $200 million credit union.

PHOENIX – Arizona FCU has selected VSoft’s Software as a Service delivery model for its image-based item processing and reporting.

WASHINGTON – NCUA has backed off its previous efforts to get a risk-based capital system and supplementary capital authority passed in Congress, virtually dooming any effort at capital reform this year.

SAN DIMAS, Calif. – Out of all the investments made by WesCorp FCU over the past few years, perhaps the worst turned out to be risky collateralized debt obligations that appear to have little intrinsic value and have caused a staggering $545.6 million in losses – and counting.

PURCHASE, N.Y. – MasterCard on Monday said its CEO Robert Selander will retire at year end and will be succeeded by chief operating officer and president Ajay Banga.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Deluxe Corp. yesterday said it has acquired Custom Direct, a Joppa, Md.-based provider of direct-to-consumer checks, for $98 million.

BOSTON – Industrial CU, the nation’s oldest community chartered credit union, has awarded $1,000 scholarships to 10 students.