PLYMOUTH, Mich.-The Michigan Credit Union League (MCUL) has held the first of two Economic Summits with credit unions leaders at the Michigan CU Center. The league reported that the foreclosure process dominated the discussion, with ideas presented on making the process more practical for lenders by shortening redemption periods, allowing the lender to obtain titles more quickly on abandoned homes, and adding penalties to help mitigate damage to property during the process. The Filene Research Institute‚s George Hofheimer was also on hand to update on progress on a report commissioned by the Michigan CU Foundation on the housing crisis in Michigan.

WESTMINISTER, Colo.-The proposed merger of SunCorp FCU into the much larger WesCorp FCU, one of a handful of corporate combinations hatched in 2007, has been postponed. "With the market dislocation the application has been put on hold," said Mark Schieffer, chief investment officer for SunCorp, of the 18-month-old merger plan.

Given the economy, we:

HOLYOKE, Mass.-With winter chills here, Holyoke CU is offering a cold remedy with its "Cold Remedy Loan" program to help members pay heating costs.

INDIANAPOLIS-While Congress debates whether to provide a "bailout" to the troubled domestic auto manufacturers, credit unions that were originally formed to serve the industry say they have been preparing for just such a bumpy road for a long time.

MILWAUKEE-Metavante, a banking and payments technology provider, announced that its fraud monitoring and reporting efforts will be supported by solutions from Actimize.

BROOKFIELD, Wis.-A banking application designed for Facebook has taken home a retail award. Fiserv's MyMoney application received this year's The Banker magazine's Retail Award for Online Innovation. Sponsored by the magazine, the awards are presided over by a panel of industry experts, including practitioners and analysts.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.-The country's current miserly ways aren't being adopted by many credit union technology managers, who still seem to have money to spare, according to participants in Credit Union Journal's 2009 Technology Wish List.

WASHINGTON-With Congress and Treasury highly focused on the state of financial services, could this be the opportune time to push for capital reform for credit unions?

DENVER-Business process outsourcing and technology firm LenderLive Network Inc. has purchased Guardian Mortgage Documents, a document preparation and software company. GMD already served as the exclusive document prep service firm for LenderLive for the last ten years.

DENVER-Maryland based Ongoing Operations, a business continuity service firm, is opening the doors on a new disaster recovery facility here. The center boasts 9,000 square feet of workspace and a data center with redundant OC-48 optical lines. Credit unions can purchase space at the new facility as a part of their preparedness plans. According to the company, the workspace is divvied up and each is equipped with copiers, printers, fax machines and other office equipment that is ready for use at a moment's notice.

AUSTIN, Texas-Four months after introducing HomeDeposit to its members, Amplify Federal Credit Union is on course to hit $1 million in deposits per month before the end of 2008. The $472-million credit union is already taking in $300,000 a month through the new program, provided by Jwaala. HomeDeposit allows account holders make deposits with online banking from home or anywhere else they may have an Internet connection.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.-A portal solutions provider based here earned a spot as one of the nation's top 500 fastest growing companies and ranked as the 27th fastest growing software companies, according to a list published in a fall edition of Inc. Magazine. Passageways, founded in 2003, was also named as the second fastest growing software company in Indiana after growing by nearly 700% over the last four years.

CU Signs With Premier Solutions

JACKSONVILLE, Ark.-There's no way Arkansas FCU could have closed 25% more first mortgage loans amidst the subprime crisis without the help of a web-based pricing engine, according to Jeff Vint, AVP of mortgage lending here.

PORTLAND, Ore.-Despite credit union complaints, business lending technology providers say their systems are, indeed, interfaced to core systems.

FT. WORTH, Texas-For all of their qualities, commercial lending technologies still don't get along with CU core systems, according to several CUs that have been in small business lending for years. While some basic interfaces are available, the more sophisticated capabilities that come from integration may not be.

FT. WORTH, Texas-Business lending technology is doing everything it should-including reducing risk, bolstering volume and offering flexibility - but it won't make peace with core systems (see related story), according to four veteran credit union lenders.

ORNL Offering ID Theft Protection

ORLANDO, Fla.-Interest rate risk is under tight control at FAIRWINDS Credit Union here, with the help of third-party analysts and an asset-liability management (ALM) system, according to Dan Bock, VP-finance at the $1.7-billion CU.