APPLE VALLEY, Calif.–High Desert FCU, which was placed under conservatorship by NCUA in October 2008 after losing $15.4-million in the first three quarters of the year, is to be merged with another credit union. But which credit union will make the purchase and assumption has yet to be identified, according to High Desert, which announced the pending P&A on its website.High Desert’s new management had earlier indicated to Credit Union Journal that it was not looking to merge, even though capital had declined to just 2.3%. In December, 2008, HDFCU laid off 16 staff members.“Based upon a thorough review of High Desert, NCUA representatives have decided to combine High Desert with another credit union,” the credit union is telling its members. “We expect the process to be complete by June 30, 2009. Rest assured NCUA has a strict process for analyzing credit union consolidations.”

WASHINGTON – The Senate Banking Committee is expected tomorrow to add a provision that would enable NCUA to borrow up to $24 billion to legislation if will consider.

LENEXA, Kan. – A 71-year-old man was rushed to the hospital Saturday morning after he was shot several times by a man fleeing a robbery at the Credit Union of Johnson County.

CHANDLER, Ariz. – A crafty robber who has baffled the security staff at Desert Schools FCU the past five months, was arrested here last week after he apparently hit an office of the credit union a fifth time since the end of October.

PORTLAND, Ore. – OnPoint CU is setting up a Facebook-like website for its mobile banking user community and also plans to offer contactless mobile payments using US Tyfone’s microSD contactless-enabled memory card.

OSWEGO, N.Y. – Compass FCU said it has been approved by NCUA to convert to a community charter serving all of Oswego County.

MULBERRY, Fla. – Community First CU has struck a deal with local school district to have staff visit schools and collect deposits from students.

NORMAN, Okla.– FAA CU has opened a new branch here in the former home of Fazoli's restaurant, which was the city’s first McDonald's location.

PALMYRA, Penn. – Members 1st FCU plans to open a student-run branch in Palmyra Area High School next month, the credit union fifth in-school facility.

MILWAUKEE – Michigan-based AmeriCU Mortgage announced Sunday it has been approved by state regulators to provide mortgage origination services for credit unions in Wisconsin, where credit unions are still calculating their losses from the collapse of Central States Mortgage Co.

WARRENVILLE, Ill. – Troubled Central States Mortgage Co. filed with a state court Friday to begin liquidating assets, a move that is likely to cost ailing Members United Corporate FCU millions of dollars of losses on the warehouse line of credit the corporate had provided the mortgage CUSO.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said last week it stripped lucrative severance agreements and bonuses scheduled for ousted executives at U.S. Central FCU and WesCorp FCU, after the nation’s two largest corporate credit unions were taken under conservatorship on March 20.

NORWALK, Conn. – Credit union executives were calling on the Financial Accounting Standards Board last week to change the rules on mark-to-market accounting in order to ease the controversial rules’ effects on their books, stretching back to last year.

The business books and the pundits call it "lost opportunity cost," the abstract yet very real economic benefits never realized because a business didn't act when it should have.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Credit Union Journal is partnering with the American Debt Relief Challenge, a credit union-backed effort to save 37,500 consumers more than $300-million.

MADISON, Wis. — Instead of simply talking about how the credit union gives back to the community, Summit Credit Union is handing $10 to 2,000 members and asking them to use the money to help someone else.

SEATTLE-Members of five small credit unions recently combined into one and named their new credit union Puget Sound CU.

MONTEREY, Calif. — A few years back economist Christopher Thornberg appeared before California's credit unions during the era when markets only went "boom" with a message that things were likely to go "bust."

MADISON, Wis. — With the deadline for filing federal tax returns approaching, the Filene Research Institute has released a new study that examines how tax preparation services, corporations and nonprofit organizations can work together.

MONTEREY, Calif. — Why troubled corporates just weren't allowed to fail, what CUs need to do to get their phone calls returned in Washington, and how credit unions can better prepare for 2009 exams by regulators were all given attention during a panel discussion here.