Feds Intervene To Rescue Student Loan Market

PROVO, Utah - When it comes to gaining greater share of wallet, it may be hard to find a CU more aggressive than Mountain High FCU. The $59-million credit union, which has averaged better than 2% ROA for the last three years, bundles products with a free checking account that’s given to members when they join, and then focuses on encouraging members to use the services.

WEST JORDAN, Utah - When the employees of Mountain America Credit Union (MACU) here are happy, members find it contagious.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Approximately 2,600 Card Services for Credit Unions (CSCU) member credit unions will be receiving checks totaling $28.9 million as a result of the Visa initial public offering earlier this year.

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

Beacon Taps McAdoo As New CEO

SAN DIEGO - Despite all the chatter about a recession, several economic experts said it looks like this could be the recession that wasn’t.

WASHINGTON - Proponents of a bill to open the process for setting credit card interchange fees insisted during recent congressional hearings the proposal would not set or regulate rates, but merely would allow merchants to negotiate the fees with the card companies and issuers.

At press time, the number of CURIA co-sponsors in the House. 218 are needed to have a majority.

CUSOLaw.com Gets Upgrade

MIRAMAR, Fla. - One CUSO here is piloting an innovative program through which a credit union’s commercial and business members can extend the CU’s financing to that company’s own clients in much the same way auto dealers provide indirect lending.

MAY

A Best Practice lies in the eye of the beholder–and there it too often stays unseen by anyone and everyone else. Gems hidden in back-office cubicles. Pearls invisible to anyone not on your network. Diamonds disguised as “just something we came up with.”

Ask any credit union employee what makes his or her institution different, and chances are, the answer will be “personal service,” or “We know our members by name,” or “We’ve taken care of members, their children and grandchildren for decades,” or “We’re part of the community and part of their families.”

Research firm Forrester predicts that the number of households that bank online will grow by 55% over the five-year period of 2006 to 2011. The total online banking penetration is projected to reach 76% of households by 2011.

The Ionia Sentinel Standard provided coverage of a new branch of Michigan One Community CU opening in Berlin Township. In addition to providing information on the location and noting it offers different hours than the CU’s other branches, the item also quoted CEO Tim Hemenway.

A recent New York Times article addressed the fact that lenders–represented by the American Bankers Association, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and the Independent Community Bankers Association–have been lobbying hard to limit proposed rules that would curb certain lending practices and require greater disclosures.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Lawmakers tightened restrictions on payday lenders last week, setting a maximum allowable annual percentage rate at 28%, lower than the cap being sought in other states.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - As other parts of financial institutions’ business are suffering, this may be just the right time for credit unions to focus on cards.

BOSTON - State regulators and NCUA have approved the member ballot converting First Priority CU to mutual savings banks, the first credit union conversion to bank under the state’s new law.