MADISON, Wis. – CUNA Mutual Group reported last week that losses on its investments created a fiscal-year loss of $148.9 million for 2008.

NEWARK, N.J. – Credit union customers of CU National Mortgage will ask a federal bankruptcy judge this morning to block the company’s use of millions of dollars of their funds while it navigates the bankruptcy procedure.

CU Journal Announces Grow Show Special Offer

U.S. Central Credit Union, Lenexa, Kan., has issued a correction to a report that appeared on cujournal.com that stated the corporate had seen a shrinkage in deposits during January, 2009. In a statement to Credit Union Journal, U.S. Central said that deposits "actually increased to $25.8 billion on Jan. 31 from $23 billion on Dec. 31, 2008." The discrepancy, said U.S. Central, is that it is not "accurate to simply compare member share and certificate balances month-to-month when assessing balance sheet activity at U.S. Central. One must also consider Member Fed Funds Purchased to accurately measure Total Member Balances. Member Fed Funds Purchased at U.S. Central actually increased to $8.5 billion on Jan. 31 from $3.3 billion on Dec. 31, 2008." The corporates' corporate further stated, "In comparing year-to-year share & certificate balances at U.S. Central, three factors explain the $19.5-billion decrease from Jan. 31, 2008: $8.5 billion in share accounts transitioned from Members' Shares & Certificates to Member Fed Funds purchased. Total shares year-to-year increased $0.3 billion; The figures include $10.3 billion in certificates maturities, and the figures include $1.0 billion in certificate redemptions.

WASHINGTON-President Obama is looking to shut down the Federal Family Education Loan program and replace it with direct federal aid-a move that could hurt banks and CUs that participate in the $80-billion federal student loan market.

TAMPA, Fla.-The chief executives of Suncoast Schools FCU and GTE FCU rejected the notion the proposed merger between the state's largest and fourth largest credit unions was forced by hard times experienced by the two, and insisted the two have flirted for some time.

In light of financial challenges, our credit union is:

NEWARK, N.J.-Dozens of credit unions will ask a federal bankruptcy court this week to order Fannie Mae to return tens of millions of dollars of mortgage servicing rights they claim were fraudulently sold to the secondary mortgage market giant by their servicer CU National Mortgage.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.-CO-OP Financial Services has eliminated the registration fee for its THINK 2009 conference, planned for April 5-8, near Austin, Texas.

SAN FRANCISCO-The California and Nevada CU Leagues are reducing the fees of their educational efforts and conferences.

COLUMBUS, Ohio-As banks boost fees across the board, especially for non-customers using ATMs, credit unions may have an opportunity to differentiate themselves with their own fee structures.

NEWARK, N.J.-The CU National Mortgage case will tie up many millions of dollars, with the largest unsecured claim weighing in at $99.2 million from Fannie Mae, but the next 19 largest unsecured claims are from credit unions, including: Suffolk FCU ($33.8 million); Proponent FCU ($21.6 million); Sperry Associates FCU ($9.2 million); Treasury Department FCU ($8.7 million); Novartis FCU ($3.1 million); Educational Systems FCU ($3.1 million); County Educators FCU ($2.8 million); Energy FCU ($2.6 million); Rutgers FCU ($2.2 million)_ Piedmont Aviation FCU ($2.1 million); Pinnacle FCU ($1.8 million); Velocity County FCU ($1.5 million); TCT FCU ($1 million) as, well as Picatinny FCU.

PORTLAND, Ore.-With the release of its first quarter training schedule, CU Business Group LLC announced it will reduce course registration fees for credit unions in 2009.

WASHINGTON-As a CUSO, CU24 is looking for ways to both make money and save money for its credit unions.

WASHINGTON-As credit unions struggle to cut expenses without cutting staff, Millenial Vision Inc. (MVi) is trying to give its credit union clients more bang for their buck.

WASHINGTON-To help credit unions save money on their travel budgets, The Members Group (TMG) has decided to switch to a virtual client conference instead of its annual, in-person client conference. "We still want to keep our credit union clients informed, and we realized we could achieve the same ends in a more cost-effective way for them," said TMG's Georgann Smith. Another move that will help save credit unions money: extending expiration dates on credit cards, allowing CUs to put off having to reissue cards for six to eight months. That can mean a pretty big savings, she said, particularly for a CU that has had to reissue cards due to potential fraud. Cutting down on fraud is another way to help keep costs-both the tangible cost of reissuing cards and the intangible cost to a credit union's reputation. That why TMG recently brought card analysis in-house. "We recently completed a beta with Vermont Credit Union, and over a four-week period we saved them $20,000 in potential fraud."

WASHINGTON-Bluepoint Solutions has launched a rental program that allows credit unions to try the firm's document management tools with out any capital expenditure.

ALBANY, N.Y.-Covera Card Solutions here will be giving a special card replace discount to those credit unions negatively affected by the Heartland Payment Systems security breach. "In these difficult financial times-and in light of the largest account compromise in history-Covera Card Solutions wants to extend a hand to credit unions," said Kimberly McCumber-Ploof, COO.

Express App Created For CDCUs

AUSTIN-A prepaid debit card program is seeing huge gains in deposits as customers participating in the NetSpend National Savings Program, created by NetSpend Corporation and endorsed by FiSCA, have deposited more than $31 million into their savings accounts in the first eight months of 2008 116% of total deposits for all of 2007.