SEATTLE – Seattle Metropolitan CU is following up its popular Pay it Forward campaign by offering cash prizes up to $5,000 to nonprofits or businesses that best demonstrates the "cooperative nature."

zzzzz

PHOENIX -- Arizona State CU awarded $34,000 through its Community Leaders Scholarship and the Loan Reduction Grant program to 18 students and alumni from universities and colleges across Arizona.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Tech CU said yesterday it plans to raise $10,000 to help victims of last week’s disasters in South Asia and the South Pacific that destroyed hundreds of communities in that part of the world.

HOUSTON – The former president of the International Longshoreman's FCU No. 24 was sentenced yesterday to 11 years in prison for pocketing more than $2 million in fake loans.

BOSTON – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, battered by losses on its mortgage-backed securities portfolio, said last week it is laying off 18 employees as part of an effort to cut expenses by 5%, or $3 million a year.

AMES, Iowa – A member of Greater Iowa CU was arrested last week for allegedly writing $12,200 in bad checks to herself through a credit union ATM machine and immediately withdrawing the money.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – San Mateo CU has implemented Integrated Media Management’s TotalAtlas, a document preparation engine that captures signatures electronically in-branch, and TotaleAtlasWeb, which captures signatures remotely via the Web.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. – United FCU said it has agreed ti install Auto Financial Group’s DrivingSense indirect loan option.

WICHITA, Kan. – Meritrust CU, known until recently as Boeing Wichita Employees CU, said it has signed with Wolters Kluwer Financial Services to implement the company’s AppOne indirect lending platform.

McLEAN, Va. – Average rates on 30-year mortgages fell below 5% for the first time in four months, but still remained above this year's record low, Freddie Mac said last week.

HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio – Wright-Patt CU has agreed to provide low-cost financing to allow middle-income residents to foreclosed homes here.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Kemba Financial CU announced the winner yesterday of its Biggest Saver Contest, which includes a $10,000 prize.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The former president of General CU told authorities he cooked the books of the credit union to conceal as much as $1.6 million in order to help members "down on their luck."

NEW YORK – NCUA Board Member Michael E. Fryzel was Honorary Grand Marshal of the Pulaski Day Parade here yesterday.

HOUSTON – PrimeWay Federal Credit Union has created a microsite on its own website to help Houstonians who have been laid off from their jobs.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has issued a new call to certain of its financial institutions to provide additional forbearance, or temporary respites to certain borrowers from mortgage payments.

WASHINGTON – Momentum is gaining in Washington for a regulatory plan that would force large, systemically risky banks to issue "contingent capital," a new type of instrument that allows institutions to quickly convert debt to equity under stressful circumstances.

CHERRY HILL, N.J. – For a bank that bills itself as “America’s Most Convenient Bank,” it was anything but last week.

WASHINGTON – Late on Friday, state and federal regulators shut three more banks – $538-million Warren Bank in Michigan, $56.3-million Jennings State Bank of Spring Grove, Minn., and $39.5 million Southern Colorado National Bank in Pueblo.