ALBANY, N.Y. – SEFCU yesterday said it will give $50,000 to Cradle Beach Camp for disabled children in Angola to help the organization winterize its cabins.

ABILENE, Texas – Abilene Teachers FCU raised $112,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of Abilene through its Skip-A-Pay loan promotion.

WASHINGTON – Home loan rates declined slightly this week, with the average for the benchmark 30-year mortgage remaining under 5%, according to Freddie Mac.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The NCUA Board is expected during next week’s meeting to propose new rules on the conversion or merger of federally insured credit unions into mutual savings banks or other institutions, including privately insured credit unions.

DENVER – First Data Corp. on Thursday reported that revenues continued to grow at a healthy 6% last year but debt service incurred to finance the 2007 takeover of the processing giant by Kohlberg Kravis Robert & Co. continues to push the company into the red.

NEW YORK – The two top executives of an ATM servicer and cash carrier on Wednesday were indicted on charges they stole $50 million from their credit union and bank customers.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The management and boards of 10 small credit unions that serve the Missouri Department of Transportation’s 10 districts will have to look for new facilities after a budget-cutting move by the state expelled them from their decades-old offices on state property.

DOVER, N.H. – A man who has been in and out of prison for much of his life on Tuesday was sentenced to three-to-seven years behind bars for last August’s robbery at Holy Rosary CU.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A local man who robbed six area institutions last fall was stopped from a seventh heist and captured after a teller at a local bank refused to cough up the cash.

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Card Services for CUs yesterday announced that Dupaco Community CU President Bob Hoefer is the winner of a home theater system from Best Buy valued at $2,500, which was raffled during CUNA’s Government Affairs Conference.

PARCHMENT, Mich. – State regulators on Wednesday reported they have approved the merger of troubled Education First CU into First Community FCU, creating one of the region’s biggest credit unions with almost $500 million in assets.

HOUSTON – The former manager of defunct Saint John Vianney FCU yesterday was sentenced to 15 months in prison for stealing $56,862 from the tiny credit union, now a part of giant San Antonio CU.

NEW YORK – The National Federation of Community Development CUs is making an additional $1 million in secondary capital available as matching funds for member credit unions not immediately eligible for a Treasury Dept. program offering capital infusions.

SAN ANTONIO – Generations FCU is the latest credit union to partner with Goodwill Industries and opened a branch in a Goodwill store here.

BETHPAGE, N.Y. – Bethpage FCU, one of three credit unions serving all of Long Island’s 3 million residents, is embarking on a new marketing campaign to differentiate itself from the cacophony of financial service providers in this competitive market.

AUSTIN, Texas – Amplify FCU, a former IBM employees credit union, said it hopes to build as many as 15 branches over the next three years.

BEAVERTON, Ore. – In proposing to combine with Addison Avenue FCU, First Tech CU is trying again at a concept it tried in the early 1990s – the marriage of credit union giants.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Credit union executives and volunteers overwhelmingly are urging NCUA that before undertaking a reform of the corporate system it move to insulate credit unions from the growing losses in the corporates, what one NCUA Board member referred to as the "800-pound gorilla."

PALO ALTO, Calif. — In the biggest credit union merger ever, Addison Avenue FCU and First Tech CU in Beaverton, Ore., said today they agreed to combine to create a credit union with almost $5 billion in assets.

FLINT, Mich. – Robert White, general manager of Flint Area School Employees' CU for more than 30 years, passed away Feb. 18 at the age of 81.