MANCHESTER, N.H. – St. Mary’s Bank (credit union), the nation’s first credit union, yesterday announced it has contracted with local ad firm Griffin York & Krause to design an advertising campaign to help celebrate its upcoming centennial birthday.

WASHINGTON – Justice FCU yesterday said it has contracted with Zix Corp. to implement the company’s e-mail encryption service.

SAN MATEO, Calif. – San Mateo CU yesterday said it has installed Fortinet’s FortiGate-800 and FortiGate-60 security appliances to protect in-branch online transactions for its 60,000 members and the corporate network used by employees.

RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia CU said it has implemented NetApp’s deduplication software–which eliminates duplicate data–as a space-saving complement to its VMware infrastructure.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – KeyPoint CU announced it has signed with TFactor to implement the company’s KnowledgePortal360 web-based learning management system.

TAMPA, Fla. – Bay Gulf CU yesterday said it has signed a collections outsourcing agreement with Gila Corp.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A portion of Interstate 70 was closed for about five hours early Monday after a man who allegedly robbed CME FCU led police on a wild chase that reached speeds of 100 miles per hour.

SAN FRANCISCO – More than 11,000 of the unbanked residents here have joined credit unions or taken out bank accounts through the fledgling “Bank on San Francisco” program, city officials announced this week. As a result, the city treasurer’s office has doubled its goal for 2008 and now hopes to open as many as 20,000 new accounts for unbanked residents.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – From the person who brought us “Kinecta,” the new name and brand for Hughes Aircraft Employees FCU, comes a plan to make over the image of Xerox FCU, just down the road a bit.

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Two area residents last week were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges they stole tens of thousands of dollars by opening accounts at local credit unions and banks and using them to cash bogus checks.

TEMPLE, Texas – Texell FCU yesterday said it hired Tony Hale, president of Associated CU of Texas, as its new chief executive. Hale will succeed Eldon Wulbrecht, who will be retiring the beginning of 2008.

ST. LOUIS – Neighbors CU yesterday announced its board has promoted its chief financial officer, John Servos, to the position of president and CEO.

CHICAGO – Credit union giant Alliant CU yesterday said it has joined the Credit Union 24 electronic funds transfer network.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Alliance CU yesterday announced it has signed a cards processing deal with PSCU Financial Services, marking the return of yet another credit union to the credit cards market.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Service CU has donated $30,000 worth of prepaid gift cards to U.S. military families stationed at overseas Army and Air Force bases in Germany.

WASHINGTON – The National Realtors Association said its board has approved an initiative to charter a credit union for Realtors.

WASHINGTON – Mississippi’s senior Senator Trent Lott, who helped shape NCUA by bringing in former NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar, yesterday announced he plans to resign his Senate seat at the end of the year.

BOUND BROOK, N.J. – With mounting losses in its consumer loan portfolio, officials of Tri-Linc FCU have decided the only resolution to their financial problems is to merge with a bigger, healthier credit union.

PASADENA, Calif. – The spreading fallout from the depressed mortgage market continues to mount at credit unions around the country, even at those institutions with little exposure to the subprime market, forcing some hard-pressed members to default on their credit union loans.

IRVINE, Calif. - Three out of every 10 U.S. consumers improved their credit score by up to 50 points in a six-month period from January to June 2007, according to the latest National Score Index study by Experian Consumer Direct.