SAN ANTONIO - U.S. Central CU has begun marketing a student loan origination program through its Charlie Mac CUSO.

There is always much discussion around the word "opportunity." Lending opportunities. Product opportunities. Market opportunities.

WASHINGTON -

Branch design remains varied across the financial services industry. Some institutions are adopting smaller footprint branches while others embrace the financial superstore concept. However, across the United States certain trends are emerging as prevalent among new and remodeled branches.

NORFOLK, Va. – A former executive at Portsmouth Post Office CU was charged with embezzling more than $170,000, forcing the credit union into a merger with the much larger Northern Star CU in 2003.

VINELAND, N.J. – A member of Bay Atlantic FCU is out thousands of dollars after he fell for a check scam.

REDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Catholic Parishes FCU opened a student-run branch at St. Valentine Catholic School.

TUKWILA, Wash. – BECU, the giant credit union formerly known as Boeing Employees CU, has completed its first completely electronic mortgage.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Pelican State CU paid its members a special dividend of $300,000, just in time for the holidays.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Service CU collected more than 1,300 pounds of food contributions for New Hampshire’s needy for Thanksgiving.

WASHINGTON – Legislation introduced in the Senate last week would establish a requirement for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to serve the underserved and set aside millions of dollars each year to fund housing projects for low- and moderate-income homebuyers.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Just months after retiring as president and CEO of Redstone FCU, Gerry Toland died last week. The cause of death was cancer.

CINCINNATI – Visa Inc., which had been stiffening its enforcement of card security rules, fined Fifth Third Bancorp $880,000 for its role in the massive security breach at TJX Cos., which forced hundreds of credit unions and banks to reissue millions of cards.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Hundreds of credit unions continue to dig out of deep holes created by their ill-fated entry into subprime auto lending, helping form one of the worst periods in the industry in a decade or more during the third quarter.

VIRGINIA BEACH – A 54-year-old robber who favored credit unions was contrite when he pleaded guilty in state court yesterday.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – Royal CU has made a donation of a different sort to the Chippewa Valley Technical College–one of its branches.

WASHINGTON – CUNA reported yesterday its political action committee, one of the most powerful on Capital Hill, raised $198,000 last month and made $96,000 in campaign contributions, building its campaign warchest up to $445,000, just as the second year of the two-year campaign cycle is beckoning.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The executive director of the local housing authority has agreed to step down and plead guilty to federal charges that he steered $835,000 to the now defunct Greater Harrisburg Community CU to help fund the fledgling community development credit union.

McLEAN, Va. – In another sign of the growing mortgage crisis, secondary mortgage market giant Freddie Mac reported yesterday that it has written down the value of its mortgage portfolio by a whopping $8.1 billion and took a $2 billion loss for the third quarter.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. Pawtucket CU said yesterday it has contracted with Open Solutions for the company’s image based and processing solutions.