WASHINGTON — Almost a third of the members of the U.S. Senate, 32 members, have one or more active accounts with Senate FCU, making the credit union the most popular bank for Congress' upper chamber. In a distant second is Bank of America, where 12 senators do their banking, according to financial disclosure reports issued by the Senate this week.

Banks, CUs Are Lobbying On Interchange Fees

SAN ANTONIO - Security Service FCU has relocated its commercial services department to a new location in North San Antonio.

DUBLIN, Ohio - Ohio Central Savings, one of the first credit unions to convert to a mutual savings bank, said it has agreed to be acquired by First Place Bank, a $1.7 billion S&L in nearby Warren, Ohio.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The FBI is investigating whether an in international ring siphoning funds from local credit union and bank accounts obtained the account information from ATMs owned by 1st Source Bank.

MADISON, Wis. - Variable pay programs–which tie monetary rewards to performance measures and productivity–continues to grow in popularity among credit unions, in part because it offers more flexibility than a simple increase to base salary, according to CUNA’s Complete CU Staff Salary Survey.

HOLLYWOOD - Members of First Entertainment FCU will have a little bit of help navigating the credit union’s website, thanks to three “Personal Assistants.”

PA Suprime Court Favors CUs

WALL STREET - Fitch Ratings put two more corporate CUs, Southwest Corporate FCU and Constitution State FCU, on its Negative Watch because of growing losses in the value of their mortgage backed securities portfolios.

CU Appeals To generations

The Credit Union Journal is announcing its Call for Entries for its Best Practices awards. It's easy to enter!

Credit Union Journal gets the letters. And the e-mails. And the “off-the-record, and you didn’t hear it from me, but...” whispers of concern. And when it comes to one issue, so, too, does NCUA Board Member Gigi Hyland.

PROVO, Utah - A research project by one credit union executive 10 years ago has lead to a four-person company that now specializes in crunching data to help credit unions measure their performance and that of their peers.

JUNE

The Augusta Chronicle provided a profile of Ed Templeton, CEO of SRP FCU. The piece included interviews with the management team and board, also featuring Templeton’s leadership philosophy called “Ed’s Rule of Windows,” which states that the final decision goes to the person with the most windows (at SRP, that would be Templeton). The article concluded by noting that for Templeton’s 50th birthday the staff chipped in to erect a billboard that showed his picture and read, “Hi, I’m Ed, and I’m 50.”

As housing sales continue to plummet in 2008, pressure is increasing to get more profit out of mortgages. Existing home sales were down almost 600,000 units in 2006-2007, and while levels are moderating, the boom is clearly over. Wholesale and direct lenders, title insurance companies, plus thousands of real estate attorneys therefore must develop new business practices that streamline core processes and cut costs. One recent development is the deployment of remote check funding to gain a further advantage in the marketplace.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. - The California and Nevada CU Leagues recently released the 2008 WestScan economic activity report for credit unions in the two states. WestScan is an annual financial report–with quarterly updates–that examines economic, financial, demographic, and other trends affecting CUs in the Golden and Silver States.

NASCUS Hosts Regional Meetings

CHILLINWACH, B.C. - A Generation Y marketing program is seeking one credit union in each U.S. state and Canadian province to help persuade young bank customers to become CU members.

TAMPA, Fla. - Rich Helber, EVP and CFO with GTE FCU, has been elected chair of the Florida CU league, succeeding John Hirabayashi, CEO of Community First CU of Florida, Jacksonville. Other board officers include: chairman-elect, Mary O. Wood, CEO of Florida West Coast CU; Treasurer, Brent E. Lister, CEO of First Florida CU; Secretary, Tom Randle, CEO of Sarasota Coastal CU, and executive officer at large, Anice Prosser, SVP-HR with Envision CU.(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com