WASHINGTON – The Comptroller of the Currency is protesting an agreement by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stop buying mortgages involving lenders’ in-house appraisers, which was intended to protect buyers from fraudulently inflated home prices.

WASHINGTON – The ongoing mortgage crisis continued to take its toll on the nation’s savings and loans, which reported a $617 million loss for the first quarter.

WASHINGTON – The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to review 11 Bush administration nominations next week, including Michael Fryzel, who would succeed JoAnn Johnson as NCUA Chairman.

CONCORD, Calif. – The National CU Share Insurance Fund continued to wrack up big losses last week by assuming tens of millions of dollars in liabilities in the merger of failed Cal State 9 CU into Patelco CU.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Three men charged in a takeover robbery at Navigator CU in March were arrested after they boasted of their escapades on the website MySpace.

MOBILE, Ala. – The former manager of Allied CU pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, admitting she used her credit union position to steal approximately $60,000.

MADISON, Wis. – Greystone Residential Funding, a mortgage company founded by former employees of CUNA Mutual Mortgage, last week announced it has been sold to a group of investors who also own QwickRate, a CD brokerage for credit unions and S&Ls.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The FBI is hunting for a man believed to be responsible for four area robberies, including a May 12 hold up at Sterlent CU.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Industrial CU said it is planting at least 1,900 trees in Whatcom County as part of Project Preservation – its effort to reduce the use of paper statements by its members.

TAMPA, Fla. – Fifteen graduating seniors from Lee County high schools received $1,000 scholarships from Suncoast Schools FCU’s for Kids Scholarship Foundation last week.

WICHITA, Kan. – Boeing Wichita CU last week said it launched its Mobile Banking Suite, which allows members to access their accounts, pay bills and transfer funds from their Web-enabled cell phones.

SAN ANTONIO – Security Service FCU on Friday said it completed the acquisition of Horizon CU of Portland, Texas, adding three new service centers through the deal.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame FCU has signed with College Funding Solutions to offer online college planning service to its members – free of charge.

PLAINFIELD, Ind. – As a reward for being the 100,000th member of Indiana Members CU, one college student earned 100,000 pennies – or the equivalent thereof, $1,000.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Association of Military Banks of America has joined defense credit unions in asking the Department of Defense to terminate an on-base credit card program awarded to JP Morgan Chase.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Loan losses grew 34% at credit unions in the first quarter, while mortgage delinquencies continued to increase, portending continued troubles further into the year, according to NCUA.

WASHINGTON - Bowing to pressure from homeowner and real estate groups, Fannie Mae has backpedaled on the down payment requirements for conforming loans in declining markets it set just six months ago.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The NCUA Board last week approved a program to make permanent last year’s Member Services Assessment Pilot that collected data indicating the approximate economic level of credit union members and how certain census tracts were being served by credit unions.

LOS ANGELES - A group of U.S. and foreign nationals were charged last week with a variety of Internet schemes–including the newly emerging “smishing,” or phishing by test messaging–that tapped into credit union and bank accounts to steal millions of dollars.

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Bellwether Community Credit Union said last week it lost a computer disk with about 3,000 members’ personal and account information and was in the process of informing members.