BOSTON – State chartered credit unions would be allowed to establish branches in one of the other five New England states for the first time under a bill introduced in the House.

MADISON, Wis. – Growth in both savings and loans declined last month, according to CUNA, adding to fears of a slowdown in the overall economy.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA yesterday said hundreds of federally chartered credit unions will be allowed to own and hold stock they are about to receive in the initial public offering of Visa Inc., even though the Federal CU Act bars equity as a permissible investment for FCUs.

CHICAGO – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, which is in merger talks with the FHLB of Dallas, yesterday said it will not pay members a third quarter dividend because of the supervisory agreement entered into last month with regulators.

RICHMOND, Va. – The CEO of venerable cash security provider Brink’s Co. yesterday rejected calls from two private equity funds with large stakes in the company to split the company into two.

BELLEVUE, Wash. – ShareBuilder, an online brokerage firm popular with credit unions, is negotiating the sale of the company to Dutch banking giant ING, according to several sources.

DAYTON, Ohio – ATM maker NCR Corp. yesterday said third quarter earnings plunged 63% due to costs related to its spin off of its Teradata data warehousing unit.

PURCHASE, N.Y. – Shares in MasterCard Inc. surged as much as 21% yesterday after the cards company reported a 63% rise in third quarter earnings.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Passageways yesterday said four credit unions have selected its Corporate Portal Framework to streamline internal communications and data management.

ST. LOUIS – The Missouri CU Association yesterday said it has agreed to sell two facilities here it had operated as shared branches to Electro Savings CU.

AUSTIN, Texas – University (of Texas) FCU yesterday announced it is donating $250,000 to the capital campaign of Concordia University Texas.

WASHINGTON – NCUA and banking regulators yesterday instituted new rules that will require all credit unions and banks to adopt comprehensive procedures to prevent and resolve identity theft. The procedures require credit unions or creditors to identify patterns, practices and forms of identity theft "red flags," respond to the red flags to prevent and limit and identity theft, and update the program regularly. The final rules also require credit and debit card issuers to develop policies and procedures to assess the validity of a request for a change of address that is followed closely by a request for an additional or replacement card. In addition, the final rules require users of consumer reports to develop reasonable policies and procedures to apply when they receive a notice of address discrepancy from a consumer reporting agency.

WASHINGTON – Consumers in all 50 states will be able to freeze their credit in cases of identity theft through all three credit bureaus starting today.

LENEXA, Kan. - Increased exposure to the subprime mortgage market through mortgage backed securities caused U.S. Central FCU to report losses of almost $17 million for the third quarter.

MINNEAPOLIS – Fair Isaac & Co., maker of the ubiquitous FICO score, reported yesterday net income for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30 rose 28%, to $28.2 million, based on a one-time tax benefit of $7.3 million.

DAYTON, Ohio – Teradata, maker of popular data warehousing systems spun off last quarter from NCR Corp., said net income for the period dropped by 79%, to $9 million, or five cents a share, partly because of costs related to the spin off.

MONETT, Mo. – Jack Henry & Associates said earnings for its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30 rose 10%, fueled by a strong growth in its outsourcing business and a 16% rise in revenues.

NEW ORLEANS – First Castle FCU said it is building a new headquarters in the nearby suburb of Covington .

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. – Fidelity FCU, a former GM employees credit union, yesterday announced it moved its offices here from nearby Atlanta and has converted to a community charter serving the city of Sandy Springs to make way for the closing of the General Motors plant.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Two teenagers have been arrested in the robbery of a woman at a Redstone FCU ATM last Thursday.