Greylock Federal Credit Union, Pittsfield, Mass., promoted Cindy Shogry-Raimer and Donald Johnston to vice president and Kevin Zimmer to chief financial officer.

SAN DIEGO - USA FCU, which reported a third quarter loss of more than $1.1 million, said it laid off 30 employees, about 10% of its workforce.

SAN FRANCISCO - Mayor Gavin Newsom called on the city's lenders to help forestall thousands of expected foreclosures by reaching out to at-risk borrowers and modifying loan terms for those who have made timely mortgage payments. Among the recipients were Patelco CU, Bank of America, Countrywide, Washington Mutual, Citibank, HSBC and Wells Fargo.

Alliant CU Signs On With CU 24

WASHINGTON - The CEOs of the two major credit union trade associations are getting some air time.

NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A Grand Raffle by the Michigan Credit Union League Legislative Action Fund raised nearly $125,000, some $30,000 more than was raised in 2006. Thirty-thousand tickets were distributed to 138 credit unions, and nearly 35,000 tickets were sold to both members and staff.

HAMPTON, Va. - Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) and Freddie Mac have joined in an initiative to expand homeownership opportunities for military families, that includes affordable mortgage products and financial education workshops in the Tidewater/Hampton Roads, Virginia area to help active duty military families plan for homeownership.

$26M Loan Auction This Week

WESTBROOK, Maine - November proved to be very good for Maine's credit unions, at least media-wise. According to the Maine Credit Union League, Maine's credit unions have been featured in 42 radio news stories and/or interviews, 61 newspaper articles and 12 TV news stories during the month.

HAVERHILL, Mass. - Executives at Northeast Community CU and Haverhill Bank are working with regulators to get the go-ahead for their unusual merger, which some see as by-passing the normal member disclosure procedure for credit unions converting to mutual savings banks.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Corporate One FCU has chartered a Credit Union Enterprise Wide Risk Management Society (Credit Union EWRM Society), with a mission to educate CUs and develop consensus around enterprise wide risk management.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Federal credit unions cannot replace third-party collateral protection insurance and private mortgage insurance with their own internal programs, according to NCUA.

Comment

HOLLISTER, Calif. - Redbeard Communications, a marketing and branding agency, has sent a Christmas card to some 700 credit unions in which it encourages recipients to remove the red beard from the card, take a photo of themselves wearing the beard and e-mail it to showusyourredbeard redbeard.com. For every CEO who does so, it will donate $10 to the Make A Wish Foundation ($5 for non CEOs). A downloadable and printable version of the beard can be found at www.redbeard.com. The company has already made a $500 donation to the charity, and said it will donate up to $5,000. (c) 2007 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

WASHINGTON -

PASADENA, Calif. - Wescom Resources Group (WRG), a CUSO of Wescom Credit union that provides Internet Banking and other solutions, has acquired another CUSO, eCU Technologies, a unit of Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union.

SAN FRANCISCO - The parent company to TJMaxx and Marshalls last week announced it had agreed to pay as much as $40.9-million to settle litigation filed by Visa, Fifth Third Bancorp and other payment card issuers over the retailer's failure to protect credit card information from hackers and the subsequent breach of significant amounts of personal data.

SANTA ANA, Calif. - The only increase Orange County Teachers FCU is seeing this holiday season is in credit card balances. But Erin Mendez, senior VP-Finance, said that's not indicative of the holiday season, just of the economy.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Although credit unions have placed different types of holiday loans under their respective trees, they are reporting one common trend--members are definitely borrowing to pay for holiday shopping.

TULAHOMA, Tenn. - Ascend FCU said it will pay a bonus dividend to members of approximately $5 million this month.