HAVERHILL, Mass. – A handful of Northeast Community CU’s 10,000 members, just 78, voted overwhelmingly last night to merge the $110 million credit union into nearby Haverhill Bank. The vote was 77-to-1 at a special meeting held at the credit union’s downtown offices. The depositors of $130 million Haverhill Bank will vote on the deal next week. The vote came after a 20 minute presentation by management over the benefits of the deal for members.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Gateway CU yesterday broke ground on its new offices, near a new hospital. The location will help the 48-year-old credit union better serve its TIP charter of the healthcare profession. The $10 million credit union hopes to move into the 3,000 square-foot space next March. Its current offices are 2,000 square feet.

RICHARDSON, Texas – Frances Bauman of Wylie soon will be on her way to Los Angeles, courtesy of the Texans CU Fan Flyaway Promotion. Texans ran a four-week promotion encouraging fans to open a free FC Dallas Team Checking Account. Each new account holder automatically was entered to win a trip to see soccer team FC Dallas play the LA Galaxy in Los Angeles on Sept. 23. The prize package includes roundtrip airfare for two, hotel, two tickets to the game and a $1,000 Texans CU Visa Gift Card for spending money. More than 180 checking accounts were opened during this promotion.

HERNDON, Va. – NACHA, the electronic payments association, this week said it has set the fee structure for its online payments pilot, Secure Vault Payments. The pilot, scheduled to go live in the first quarter of 2008, will allow consumers to initiate private and secure payments for purchases and bill payments through their credit union’s or bank’s online payment platform. During the pilot, participating financial institutions will authenticate consumers and provide real-time payment authorizations for ACH Network transactions to the participating online businesses.

PHILADELPHIA – Pannonia FCU said counterfeit checks with its name and authentic signature are being used in a Secret Shopper scam. The recipient is to pose as a potential customer at the assigned place of business and evaluate its customer service. Letters sent to individuals include a check in the amount of $2,320. The letter advises that the check is to cover training pay, purchases at Target or Wal-Mart, a MoneyGram transaction, and MoneyGram service charge. Upon receipt of the letter, the recipient is instructed to "contact our office immediately" for detailed instructions. Also included in the letter was a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and evaluation forms for the shopping experience.

SAN FRANCISCO – Visa said yesterday it received clearance from the Securities and Exchange Commission for a complicated restructuring that will culminate in the cards giant going public. Visa now will seek approval from its member credit unions and banks to combine Visa USA, Visa Canada and Visa International for the restructuring, which will lead to an initial public offering. Under a complicated series of transactions, Visa will sell Class A shares to the public, Class B shares to U.S. credit union and bank members, and Class C shares to international financial institution members. It is unclear how much Visa plans to raise with the IPO, but it expected to be significantly more than the $2.5 billion raised by MasterCard in its 2005 IPO.

WASHINGTON – Fannie Mae Chief Executive Daniel Mudd this week called on credit unions to join his secondary mortgage market giant in helping right the foundering mortgage market. Mudd said Fannie Mae has helped refinance 33,000 mortgages–some $6 billion in home loans–since May, as the nation’s foreclosure rate has soared to new highs. He urged more than 400 credit union executives at NAFCU’s Congressional Caucus to step into the void in the mortgage market left by the dozens of lenders and brokers going out of business by helping out troubled mortgage borrowers. The Fannie Mae executive cited several credit union offerings: Desert Schools FCU monitoring members for exploding mortgages borrowed elsewhere; Local Government Employees FCU notifying all members of refinancing options; and North Carolina State Employees CU’s introduction of low-rate refinancing options, as examples of credit union initiative. He called on more credit unions to help out their troubled members with mortgage counseling and refinancing options; even if those troubled loans were borrowed at other institutions. Fannie Mae has asked federal regulators and Congress to increase two-year-old limits on the amount of mortgages it can hold in order to buy more mortgages on the market. In addition, Fannie Mae is seeking to buy larger jumbo mortgages that exceed the company’s current $417,000 conforming loan limit. While the increase in the size of loans that can be bought won’t affect homeowners in some markets, it will help average homeowners in high-cost markets.

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. – Freddie Mac is expected to announce today a new program at Fort Riley called Home Possible Mortgages, which will provide new home buying opportunities for military families, as well as "Credit for Life," a financial literacy program to help soldiers plan for homeownership. Home Possible Mortgages will carry very low down payments and flexible credit requirements, as well as higher loan-to-value ratios. It also will offer certain underwriting features which will allow important community workers such as teachers, police, firefighters and health care workers, as well as soldiers, the ability to afford to buy a home in their own communities.

McLEAN, Va. – Rates on 30-year mortgages dropped this week to the lowest point in four months, providing some relief for people hoping to refinance their existing mortgages, according to Freddie Mac. The average on the benchmark, 30-year, fixed-rate loan fell to 6.31% this week, from 6.46% last week; while the average for the 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage declined to 5.97%, from 6.15%. ARM rates also fell steeply, with the average for the five-year ARM dropping to 6.17%, from 6.32% last week; and the average for the one-year ARM hitting 5.66%, down from 5.74%. All mortgage products surveyed by Freddie Mac showed declines this week. Frank Nothaft, the company's chief economist, said this should provide help to homeowners who are hoping to refinance existing adjustable rate loans that are resetting from low introductory "teaser" rates.

BOSTON – Credit unions are bidding to join the lawsuit against TJX Companies that seeks millions of dollars in costs accrued in the company’s massive data breach. SELCO Community CU, of Eugene, Ore., last week asked the federal court here to certify all credit unions and banks that received an alert from Visa or MasterCard related to the TJX breach for purposes of a class action suit against Fifth Third Bancorp, the cards processor for TJX. SELCO attorneys said in court documents Fifth Third, the nation’s fourth-largest cards processor, was told of the breach by TJX on Dec. 26 or 27, 2006, but waited three weeks before it notified its credit union and bank customers. Fifth Third is the acquiring bank for TJX, acquiring and processing the national retailer’s Visa and MasterCard accounts. A group of New England banks has filed suit against TJX, but credit unions have yet to join that suit. The TJX breach is believed to have involved more than 45 million customers’ accounts at the company’s TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Winners, Home Goods, A.J. Wright and Home Sense stores, forcing hundreds of credit unions and banks to reissue credit cards. The information is believed to have been used by online gangs to make counterfeit credit cards. The leader of one such group was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison and ordered to pay $600,000 in restitution for using TJX information to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise with bogus cards. Another suspect believed to be trafficking in TJX information was arrested last month in Istanbul.

SEFFNER, Fla. – Deputies shot and wounded a man they suspect of carjacking a women, then using her and her car to rob a Suncoast Schools FCU branch last night. The suspect allegedly accosted the woman in a supermarket parking lot and shoved her and her young son into the car. He then drove to the nearby credit union branch and told the drive-thru teller he had a bomb and demanded money, before driving off with an undisclosed amount of cash. A few blocks later the suspect agreed to pull over and let the son out, at which point both mother and son dove from the moving vehicle and made their escape. Later, police arrested the suspect and brought him in for questioning. When he tried to wrestle a deputy’s gun away he was shot twice. The injuries were not believed to be life threatening. The suspect, identified as Tracey Alderman, 29, was charged with robbery with the threat of destructive force, carjacking, and two counts of kidnapping.

JACKSONVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas FCU said it will introduce a new low-cost payday loan product for the military Oct. 1, the day the new federal cap on interest rates for military personnel takes effect. The annual percent rate for the credit union’s payday alternative loans will be 18%, half of the new 36% cap on payday loans for military personnel. The credit union’s payday loan product was designed by Hank Klein, its former CEO, who now spearheads the fight against predatory lending on behalf of Arkansas Against Abusive Payday Lending. Under the program the credit union would lend as much as $750 to members of the military plus put an additional $375 into a savings account, funded by the interest payments. The money in the savings account will be placed on hold until the entire loan is paid off over the course of a single year.

LANSING, Mich. – NuUnion CU reported yesterday it has implemented Proofpoint Inc.’s Messaging Security gateway to protect its communications systems from Spam and viruses, while preventing security breaches. The Proofpoint system automatically scans for personal financial information, such as Social Security numbers and credit card information, making it easy for the credit union to comply with data security regulations. NuUnion, formerly Michigan State Employees CU, has deployed the company’s Spam Detection, Virus Protection and Zero-Hour Anti-Virus modules.

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. – Kinecta FCU said yesterday it has signed a multi-year agreement for electronic bill payment and other online services with Online Resources Corp. Under the deal, the $3.5 billion credit union will migrate all of its in-house bill payment processing to Online Resources’ PayAnyone service. The credit union also has deployed the company’s online account opening, ACH processing and e-statement services. As a member of Symitar’s Vendor Integration Program, Online Resources was able to facilitate a seamless, expedited implementation, the company said.

MINNEAPOLIS – Shareholders of human resources and payroll services provider Ceridian Corp. approved the sale of the company yesterday to a group led by buyout firm Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Fidelity National Financial. The buyers will pay $36 per share, or a total of $5.3 billion in cash. Ceridian is one of the top human resources outsourcers and has several top 100 credit unions as customers. It also is a major payment processor and issuer of credit, debit and stored value cards.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Fidelity National Information Services said yesterday it has completed the $1.8 billion acquisition of eFunds Corp., the processor of transactions over the credit union-owned CO-OP Financial Services network. "eFunds is an excellent fit for our company, and further strengthens our competitive positions in electronic processing and risk management services," said William Foley, executive chairman of FIS, in a statement. In April, eFunds signed a multi-year contract extension to process EFT transactions for the CO-OP network.

RICHMOND, Va. – A private equity fund known as Pirate Capital, which has been trying to raid venerable cash carrier Brinks Co., is under attack by its own investors. Pirate Capital, which has been pushing Brinks to separate its financial institutions and home security businesses, has barred investor withdrawals from its two Jolly Roger Activist funds after the firm’s assets declined by almost 80% since the start of the year. Pirate founder Thomas Hudson was given a seat on the Brinks board last year after a failed attempt to win two seats and force a sale or spin-off of one of the operations. Over the last year, Pirate has accumulated a 9% stake in Brinks, making it the company’s largest shareholder.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said yesterday it has approved the merger of Western FCU with Toyota FCU, one of the largest credit union combinations in several years. The deal will give the $1.2 billion Western FCU entry into the $265 million Toyota FCU’s national field of membership, the thousands of employees and their family members working at Toyota plants across the country. Western FCU plans to add branches outside the Toyota plants, many of which have branches inside that only are accessible by Toyota employees. The merger is expected to be completed by year-end.

WASHINGTON – Legislation to protect credit unions and their members from data security breaches has been put on the back burner by Congress and its future left in doubt, key lawmakers said this week. Congressman Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said after speaking to NAFCU’s Congressional Caucus he has backed off the issue somewhat as other priorities have emerged and consensus has become elusive on a data security measure. Frank, who had hoped to introduce his own version of a data security bill this fall, said it won’t take place until next year. Several other committees in both the House and Senate have competing versions of a data security bill and there is no clear consensus in Congress on how to deal with the growing threat of data security and identity theft. But the Massachusetts Democrat said he has been swayed by credit unions in his home state who are lobbying to bring more accountability at the point of data breaches. Frank said he was convinced by HarborOne CEO Jim Blake, whose credit union has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to notify members of third-party breaches and to block and reissue cards. As a result, Frank said he supports measures to require parties that cause a breach to notify all of its customers, including credit unions, banks and consumers, and to pay the costs to resolve the events, including notification of members by credit unions, and to reissue cards. "We’re going to put the burden on the people who made the mistake, if we do a data bill," he said.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – NCUA is in high-level negotiations to resolve some of the growing liability on Florida real estate loans it inherited from three failed credit unions, according to sources familiar with the talks. Representatives from NCUA currently are in talks with the builder of the Florida homes, which partnered with the three credit unions and other parties over tens of millions of dollars in claims in two local real estate developments, Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres. The two sides are scheduled to meet next Friday to negotiate some kind of settlement of claims. No resolution of the claims is guaranteed, the sources emphasize. The three credit unions, two in Colorado and one in Michigan, financed thousands of loans for new homes in the two developments that were meant to be “flipped” after a year at a guaranteed 14% return for investors. Thousands of the loans have gone into default, leaving NCUA, as conservator of the three failed credit unions, holding as much as $500 million in loans in the two projects. An untold number of credit unions, at least two dozen, also hold millions of dollars in loan participations in the two projects. NCUA is hoping to stave off investors and angry credit unions in court if it can negotiate a settlement of claims.