ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Buffeted by several large credit union failures, NCUA yesterday said the National CU Share Insurance Fund lost $185.4 million in December, the most losses for one month or for an entire year in the fund’s existence.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Net income at the nation’s credit unions plummeted 53% in the fourth quarter, pushing the industry’s returns down to their lowest in decades, NCUA reported yesterday.

SALT LAKE CITY – Members of Beehive CU have approved the conversion of the $175 million credit union to mutual savings bank, the 54-year-old credit union announced last night.

SAN DIEGO – An armed man jumped over the counter at First Future CU, scooped money from the teller drawers and dumped it in a trash can before making his getaway Tuesday afternoon.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – America First CU will be holding daily drawings for $100 Visa gift cards until March 1 to celebrate the opening of its newest facility here–the credit union’s 76th branch.

OMAHA, Neb. – A man who allegedly robbed the same branch of Creighton FCU two times before he was arrested Tuesday is on his third strike.

DURAND, Mich. – City officials have agreed to provide incentives to SageLink CU to move the $135 million credit union’s headquarters here from nearby Flint.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Arrowhead CU announced a new partnership with area energy providers to promote energy conservation at 16 of its area branches.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – University of Illinois Employees CU announced it has hired E.J. Donaghey, president of Hawthorne CU the last five years, to be its new president and CEO.

IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. – This community will lose a major employer when credit union giant ESL FCU builds a new corporate headquarters in nearby Rochester, but another credit union tenant, Xerox FCU–soon to be renamed Xceed FCU–will fill part of the void.

NEW YORK – United Nations FCU yesterday agreed to place $500,000 in low-interest, non-member deposits in community development credit unions in partnership with the National Federation of CDCUs.

WASHINGTON – In a report that presages bad news for credit unions, federal regulators yesterday said the nation’s savings and loans lost a record $5.2 billion in the fourth quarter as the housing market tanked.

INDIANAPOLIS – A stock market speculator who gained illegal access to dozens of initial public offerings for mutual savings banks–including five of former credit unions–was sentenced to 20 months behind bars for his role in the scheme.

WASHINGTON – CUNA stepped into three races–winning two–in the Feb. 4 congressional primaries in Illinois, the earliest congressional primaries ever held in any state.

WASHINGTON – Leaders of the House Financial Services Committee have agreed to hold a long-sought hearing on the CU Regulatory Improvements Act some time in the next few weeks, according to one lawmaker involved in the talks.

HARRISBURG, Penn. – Two men involved in a fraudulent car loan scheme at Pennsylvania State Employees CU yesterday were found guilty in the brutal murder of one of their accomplices.

GOSHEN, N.Y. – A member of Valley Central FCU failed to withdraw her guilty plea and was ordered to repay the one-branch credit union $196,000 she stole in $500-a-month installments.

MADISON, Wis. – State chartered credit unions in Wisconsin–representing the vast majority of all credit unions–boosted their loan loss reserves last year by millions of dollars as delinquencies and charge-offs began to tick up, according to the annual summary issued by the Department of Financial Institutions.

SAGINAW, Mich. – Volunteers from United Financial CU and the community will help tear down the credit union’s branch here this weekend, then truck the reusable materials to other sites for use by Habitat for Humanity.

WALTHAM, Mass. – Wolters Kluwer Financial Services announced the release of the company's Wiz Sentri: Anti-Fraud Platform with Internal Fraud module, which will help an institution to identify and track internal fraudulent trends and behavior in real time.