Buyout Group Lowers Offer For Sallie Mae

ARLINGTON, Va. - Although recently released stats for the second quarter revealed some real strength in the economy, NAFCU Economist Tun Wai suggested the troubled housing and financial markets still are taking a toll.

SAN FRANCISCO - The credit union movement is headed for one of its biggest paydays ever-as much as $1 billion worth of stock in Visa Inc.-when the cards giant goes public later this year.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Beacon Federal Bancorp, a conglomeration of five converted credit unions, plans to raise as much $100 million in an initial public offering, one of the biggest offerings ever for a former credit union.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - NCUA's Outreach Task Force, charged with evaluating the Member Service Assessment Pilot, is working on putting together its report now that all six of the group's "town hall meetings" in various locations throughout the country are complete. The topics addressed included: programs and processes to encourage outreach to underserved communities; value of low-income designation; and data collection on member income and executive compensation. "The town hall meetings are a critical component of the Task Force's mission of evaluating the MSAP in order to make recommendations aimed at enhancing service to credit union members," said NCUA Board Member Gigi Hyland, who chairs the task force. "As we facilitated these meetings across the country, the support the credit union community has given to the Task Force has been exemplary, and the insights shared will prove to be invaluable as the Task Force deliberates to produce the report."

WASHINGTON - The winners of the highest awards presented in the credit union community have been named. Bob Hoel, Harriet May and the State Employees Credit Union Foundation in North Carolina have been selected as the recipients of the 20th Annual Herb Wegner Memorial Awards, which are sponsored by the National Credit Union Foundation.

SAN DIEGO - The future holds a growing unwillingness by consumers to accept additional fees, resulting pressures to reduce even more costs, and potential new niches for smaller players such as credit unions, according to a one group of experts.

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ROANOKE, Va. - Brad Boothe sees saving for college as one more step on the road to financial literacy, a road Member One Federal Credit Union is committed to making available to as many of its members as possible.

MERIDIAN, Miss. - Frank Besecke describes himself as a "hands-on CEO," a trait that may have been especially useful when he took over the reins of 1st Mississippi FCU four years ago.

HOUSTON - Strunk & Associates, a financial advisory service known for its implementation of the original Overdraft Privilege Service Program, expressed its concerns to its credit-union partners regarding to House Bill HR 946.

HOUSTON - PULSE launched its new neural network-based fraud detection system across its entire network last week, following a three-month beta development program involving 14 financial institutions. DebitProtect provides risk-scoring for all PULSE PIN, signature and PINless debit transactions on the PULSE network, and notifies designated financial institution personnel via e-mail of possible fraudulent transactions.

WASHINGTON - The Competitive Enterprise Institute has published a paper suggesting that credit unions are a potential remedy to small businesses feeling the current credit crunch. A paper authored by Eli Lehrer and titled, "Taxicab Medallions and Heirloom Tomatoes to the Rescue," suggests that restrictions on credit union business lending should be lifted in order to increase the supply of credit to the small business market.

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. - Two more CUs are expanding into business services. The $979-million Eagle FCU here, through a partnership with CU Business Capital, LLC (CUBC), Miramar, Fla., has expanded its offerings to include business loans, leases and SBA loans, deposit products, business checking and MMAs, remote deposit capture, commercial insurance products and more. In the process American Eagle has also become a Tier II equity partner of CUBC, which is a CUSO, entitling it to pricing discounts on CUBC services.

MISSOULA, Mont. - While some businesses may be accused of having a glass ceiling, one Montana credit union will be among the first to install a glass floor, and it will require the help of its members to do so.

Ronkonkoma, N.Y. - People's Alliance FCU is trying to make sure that anyone eligible for membership knows it.

LSI Hits 10,000 Loan Application

SAN ANTONIO - The $4-billion Security Service Federal Credit Union (SSFCU) is absorbing via merger Harlingen-based Kilowatt Federal Credit Union (KFCU). The $9-million KFCU has 2,100 members and two locations in the Rio Grande Valley area, where SSFCU already has 2,500 members.

MADISON, Wis. - Members continued to turn to their credit unions for loans during August.

OCTOBER