ALEXANDRIA, Va.-NCUA has approved a plan by a group of Florida credit unions to create a CUSO that would buy and collect on troubled loans.

MIRAMAR, Fla.-NCUA, which is predicting increasing loss from large credit union failures in the coming months, was trying last week to keep the costs down for the merger of Eastern Financial Florida CU, the largest natural person credit union failure ever.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Like a lot of CUs, Advantis CU chalks up much of its success to its focus on service. But in this case that also means service to auto dealers.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Consumers finding it harder to pay the bills are seeing their credit scores fall, and that means credit unions are having to go old school with more character- and relationship-based loan decisions.

WASHINGTON-Nine community development credit unions were awarded more than $15 million in grants from the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund last week to use to expand lending and their branch networks.

JULY

CUSO Boasts 70 CUs In Program

TALLAHASSE, Fla. — Patrick La Pine has a tall order in front of him when he becomes the first-ever president/CEO of the League of Southeastern Credit Unions in the first week of August. The new entity, a combination of the Alabama and Florida state leagues, is essentially a clean slate as the only action it has taken is electing a new board, comprised of eight representatives from each state.

One of the reasons that credit unions have traditionally won only a small slice of the real estate lending market is the typical homebuying process. What usually happens is that consumers see a real estate agent long before they sit down with a lender. That's a backward way of doing things, because how can you know what price range to look for before you've been pre-qualified? But people think "new house!" before they think "new loan!" and so the Realtor is often the starting point.

I wonder how many were struck by the irony when Dan Mica thanks President Obama for keeping the NCUA independent when just a short time ago he was asking for TARP funds just in case of an emergency. I fought against the use of TARP funds and my side won. If Dan Mica's side had won, credit unions would have been no doubt very included in the administration plans for financial institution reform.

Stumbling through the dark, like a drunk looking for a lamppost, does have its rewards. You get to do and say anything that comes to the muddled mind without remorse or blame, so that when you do finally find the light and begin to sober up, your new-found position can be anything you'd like to make of it and totally disconnected from how you got there.

Credit unions got some pretty good advice recently from a guy they likely once would have turned down for a loan.

FAIRFAX, Va. — As delinquencies and defaults continue to rise, credit unions are searching for ways to help both members and the bottom line by offering loan modifications, but there are a number of wrinkles CUs need to iron out first to be successful.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Perhaps in no area of lending is experience more critical than indirect auto loans.

Texas CUs Adopt NCUF's REAL Solutions

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — NCUA, seeking to keep credit unions out of the Obama administration's proposed consumer protection agency, proposed last week to create its own consumer office within the agency.

LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — St. Francis Campus Employees CU doesn't take for granted the impact a friendly, familiar face has on the bottom line.

Click on the links below for Credit Union Journal's exclusive coverage of CUNA's America's Credit Union Conference.

BURBANK, Calif. – Technicolor FCU was back open for business on Wednesday after closing its doors Tuesday allegedly due to issues with some of its staff.

SAN DIMAS, Calif. – Western Corporate FCU (WesCorp) reported it is implementing numerous expense reductions, including the elimination of up to 90 employee positions, as it seeks to return to profitability.