SAN DIEGO – The California Department of Financial Institutions on Friday reported it has approved the merger of First Future CU with California Coast CU, creating one of the state’s biggest credit unions with almost $2 billion in assets.

PORTLAND, Maine – A surreptitious campaign by CUNA on behalf of Iraq war hero Adam Cote in tomorrow’s Democratic primary for Maine’s 1st District House seat has raised the ire of the other five candidates in the race and the state’s bankers, all of whom learned of the initiative from last week’s report in the Credit Union Journal Daily Briefing.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The commercial lending market remains strong and growing for credit unions, with banks helping to send business CUs’ way, according to the leaders of four CUSOs.

SAN DIMAS - As much as attention has focused on billion-dollar securities writedowns at the world’s largest financial companies, the fingerprints of fair-value accounting are nowhere more evident than in the arcane and isolated milieu of corporate credit unions.

Ringleader Of Young ID Thieves Gets Jail Time

WASHINGTON - Armed with one of the longest resumes of any NCUA nominee, Chicago lawyer Michael Fryzel breezed through a confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee last week.

PORTLAND, Me. - In one of its largest efforts of its kind, CUNA has spent almost $113,000 over the past week on independent mailings on behalf of Democrat Adam Cote, an Iraq war hero running in next week’s Democratic Primary for the state 1st District House seat.

CROSSETT, Ark. - A local newspaper that incorrectly reported two Arkansas CUs filed for bankruptcy spurred a $639,000 run on money at one of the CUs and damaged reputations for both, report CEOs of the affected institutions.

PHOENIX - As Troy Stang treks from the Arizona desert to the green forests of Oregon to take over the Credit Union Association of Oregon, he told Credit Union Journal his top priority will be to build on the league’s advocacy efforts started by his predecessor, Gene Poitras.

WASHINGTON - While other mortgage lenders are shutting down, credit unions are rolling out the welcome mat, with mortgage originations skyrocketing 53% in the first quarter of 2008 compared to the same time last year, according to Callahan & Associates.

Colo./Wyo. Leagues Get New HQ

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - City-County FCU’s boom! Club has been a growth boon to the CU in the category many credit unions covet–Gen Y. The initiative aimed at ages 13-22 claims 6,190 participants, which has helped lower the average age of the credit union’s membership to 40.

WILSONVILLE, Ore. - Despite the many challenges facing credit unions, the retired president of the CU Association of Oregon Geme Poitras believes the cooperative model will continue to thrive.

Consider the observation, below, for a moment:

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio joined the growing list of states restricting payday lending recently, when Gov. Ted Strickland signed legislation to limit the annual rates on the short-term loans at 28%.

JUNE

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

Headlines everywhere are focused on today’s uncertain economy and continuing market dislocation. Daily, we hear of another mortgage lender or other big bank in trouble. To be sure, this is a time not seen in the financial industry in recent years. That’s why it is so critical for the financial press to be accurate and fair in its reporting.

Much has been written over the past few years about the growing threat of mortgage fraud. Beyond the FBI statistics, MBA workshops, and the burgeoning industry in fraud detection software for loan originations, the threat of closing table fraud is being overlooked. The failure to look at the “back end” of the mortgage loan process is occurring to the detriment of credit unions and threatens to derail the many advances made in fraud detection and prevention to date.

WASHINGTON - Credit Union Student Choice, the new CUSO launched to offer student lending services via credit unions, has named Mike Weber as its first VP-marketing. Weber had been VP-marketing and PR with Dupaco Community CU in Dubuque, Iowa, and is immediate past chair of CUNA’s Marketing and Business Development Council. Meanwhile, Credit Union Student Choice reported that in its first 30 days since launch it approved more than $1.5 million in private student loans. The loans were made through the seven credit unions currently live on the system: Affinity Plus FCU, Digital FCU, NASA FCU, NuUnion FCU, Northwest FCU, Star One CU, and Wright-Patt CU. (c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com