WASHINGTON – CUNA President Dan Mica responded to criticism yesterday of CUNA’s role on the board of U.S. Central FCU, the focus of NCUA’s $5 billion corporate credit union rescue.

WALL STREET – Standard & Poors placed the 10 corporates it rates on its CreditWatch Negative yesterday because its believes the growing opposition to NCUA’s corporate bailout from natural person credit unions may jeopardize the plan.

WASHINGTON – CUNA is being scrutinized for its role in the bailout of U.S. Central FCU and the corporate credit union network, which is estimated to cost credit unions $5 billion to fund.

CHICAGO – Alliant CU, the $6 billion credit union, announced yesterday it has contracted with CUNA Brokerage Services, Inc. to provide financial advisory services to its members.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Fidelity National Information Services, the provider of back-office services for credit unions, reported a 73% drop in fourth quarter earnings, due mostly to the spin-off early last year of its mortgage processing operations into a separately traded company.

MORENO VALLEY, Calif. – The FBI is hunting for a man who robbed a Visterra CU branch Monday wearing a bucket hat, a neck brace and a bandage over his nose.

ALBANY, N.Y. – SEFCU announced a donation of $100,000 Northeast Parent & Child Society’s "We Build Futures" Capital Campaign to construct the SEFCU Job Center on the first floor of Northeast’s Career Development Center in Schenectady.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Alliance CU has become one of the first financial institutions to deploy a new suite of small business services offered by Digital Insight called FinanceWorks.

ERIE, Penn. – Erie FCU has added a voluntary donation component to its EZ Saver Account, which it introduced last year.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – NCUA said it has granted Broward Healthcare FCU a TIP charter to serve the healthcare industry in Broward County.

FRESNO, Calif. – Educational Employees CU said it will begin offering car loans with interest rates as low as 2.99%, several points below the national average, beginning tomorrow.

MADISON, Wis. – Call it the mother of all credit union savings contest: a new contest called Save to Win that will award one member of a Michigan credit union $100,000.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A few days short of Valentine’s Day, NCUA promoted Love, that is long-time regional director Melinda Love, to be the agency’s director of examinations and insurance.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The chief executive of another billion-dollar credit union called on NCUA yesterday to scrap its $5 billion bailout of the corporate credit union network and urged the federal regulator instead to takeover the corporates.

ASHLAND, Ky. – A former employee of Bluegrass Community FCU was charged with embezzling more than $165,000 from the credit union, including $77,000 after she was fired last April.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Six area credit unions took part in a special promotion for the Michigan International Auto Show, each taping a 15 minute ad that aired during the WOOD TV Gala kickoff live event Feb. 4.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – Marshall Community CU has become a member of the Treasury Department’s Go Direct program which encourages Social Security and other federal benefit payments by check to switch to direct deposit.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Teachers CU said it has deployed McAfee Email Gateway appliance to protect sensitive information and help eliminate viruses, spam, and malware before it reaches users.

SALEM, Va. – Salem VA CU said yesterday it has converted the processing of its 2,000 credit card accounts to TNB Card Services.

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Navy FCU said last week it is hiring 43 new workers at its call center here.