ROYERSFORD, Penn. – A man who robbed Superior CU at gunpoint yesterday morning was apparently undeterred by the police station next door. The lone gunman made off with about $3,000, police said. The incident occurred around 9:30 am.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Newport News Shipbuilders’ CU, one of the biggest credit unions in the region, is changing its name to BayPort CU in an attempt to broaden its membership. The credit union, whose membership previously was restricted to employees of the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard and their families, opened its field of membership two years ago to all Hampton Roads residents. Officials of the $925 million credit union said they are changing the name partly to eliminate confusion about membership eligibility. At least six other credit unions in Hampton Roads, including ABNB FCU in Chesapeake, Northern Star CU in Portsmouth and 1st Advantage FCU in Newport News, have switched to community charters.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – K-25 FCU, one of the state’s largest credit unions, is shedding its original identity and being renamed Enrichment FCU to help members and potential members focus on its new community charter. The credit union was chartered in 1950 to serve employees of the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion (K-25) Plant, part of the Manhattan Project. The name Enrichment was chosen to pay tribute to the original K-25 Plant mission of uranium enrichment. The credit union grew many times over by adding select groups and in 2004 converted to a community charter serving eight surrounding counties. K-25 has more than $260 million in assets and serves more than 35,000 members.

ERIE, Penn. – Erie FCU said Angelo Susi, a 47-year volunteer and former chairman of the board, passed away Sept. 9 at 84. Susi was chairman of the now $250 million credit union for 28 years, before retiring from the board in 2005. He also served on the credit and supervisory committees. Susi served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and retired from the Erie School District after 37 years as a teacher, counselor and principal.

FITCHBURG, Mass. – Norman Boudreau, the president and CEO of IC FCU since 1963, has set his retirement for next August, which will mark 45 years at the credit union. Boudreau, 74, will continue to serve on the board of the 80-year-old credit union. The Board has formed a search committee to hire a successor. Boudreau became president and CEO in 1963 when IC FCU had $4 million in assets. In a statement, Boudreau said he is in good health but wants to spend more time with his family, including nine grandchildren.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – KeyPoint CU said yesterday it is now offering free worldwide mobile banking that allows members to use cell phones, smart phones and PDAs to access accounts. The credit union’s “Go KeyPoint” system combines MShift’s mobile technology with Open Solutions’ host system used by KeyPoint. KeyPoint is an $800 million credit union formerly known as AEA FCU.

ONTARIO, Calif. – In one of the biggest single sponsor expansions ever, UPS FCU said yesterday NCUA has approved its expansion to serve all 325,000 employees of United Parcel Services and their family members nationwide. The 23-year-old credit union currently serves about 16,000 UPS employees in California and Clark County, Nev. The credit union has $28 million in assets.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA reported it approved an application from Kinecta FCU to add more than 5.5 million residents in surrounding low-income communities to its field of membership, by far the largest underserved expansion ever granted. The underserved grant was approved to facilitate the credit union giant’s acquisition of a chain of 55 check-cashing stores in the region. NCUA said it granted other underserved expansions, as well, allowing $5.5 billion Suncoast Schools FCU to enter two additional Florida counties; and $2.5 billion Randolph-Brooks FCU to enter two more Texas counties. Kinecta, with $3.5 billion in assets, plans to eventually convert its newly acquired check cashing offices to full-service branches, more than tripling its current branch network.

WASHINGTON – Geoff Bacino, regulator of the Federal Home Loan Banks, said if credit unions want a seat at the FHLB they need to avail themselves more of the mortgage financing at the 12 regional banks. Bacino, a former NCUA Board member, used his soapbox at the FHLB regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Board, to call for more credit union participation. The housing finance regulator told 400 attendees to NAFCU’s Congressional Caucus that credit unions make up 11% of the FHLB’s more than 8,000 members, but only 3% of the banks’ mortgage financing, about $19 billion of a total of $750 billion. “You’ve got to start using the system,” said Bacino, of credit unions lobbying for seats on the 12 FHLB boards. He said low-cost FHLB financing can help credit unions expand their mortgage lending at a time when mortgage brokers and others are retreating from the market. Bacino suggested that the credit union trade groups form an FHLB interface committee, as the bank trades do, to meet with the regulators on a regular basis.

WASHINGTON – An influential House member told credit union leaders yesterday there is no chance for passage of their regulatory relief bill in this Congress, but lawmakers may agree to pass some of the provisions in CURIA separately. Among the provisions Congress might consider are those creating a risk-based capital system for credit unions and easing restrictions on member business lending, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told about 400 attendees of NAFCU’s Congressional Caucus yesterday. Frank promised the credit union executives a hearing on CURIA before his committee, but said even if the bill were to get through the panel, Congress is focused on so many other issues CURIA would have long odds against it. “I do not see any significant chance whatsoever that CURIA, as it stands, will pass both the House and the Senate in its entirety,” Frank said. “There is a chance that we could pass some significant pieces of it.” The Financial Services Chairman also said he plans to review an expansion of the Community Reinvestment Act and will include credit unions in that review. Frank, a major supporter of CRA, noted that credit unions in Massachusetts have been operating under CRA for years.

PITTSBURGH – A computer expert who served as a confidential source for an elite FBI computer crime squad was indicted on federal charges yesterday of stealing confidential information from Pentagon FCU, Citibank and others to traffic in stolen credit cards. Max Ray Butler, 35, also known as the Iceman, was charged with running an online marketplace for stolen credit card information at cardersmarket.com that is used by third parties to manufacture phony credit cards, a practice known as “carding.” Butler allegedly stole the cards data by hacking into the computer systems of Pentagon FCU, Citibank and a government employee. Though he lives in San Francisco, Butler was charged in Pittsburgh because he sold more than 100 credit card numbers and related information to a western Pennsylvania resident who is cooperating with the investigation. The number of cards reportedly compromised by Butler and his accomplices is said to be in the thousands. Butler previously served 18 months in prison for hacking into computers at University of California Berkeley, national laboratories, federal agencies, Air Force bases and a NASA flight center. Some of these crimes took place while he was supposed to be working undercover for the FBI. But at his sentencing in 2001, a federal prosecutor said Butler “masqueraded as an informant for the FBI, claiming to cooperate with law enforcement while using computer programs that conducted automated, unauthorized system checks.”

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – William Foley, the man who built Fidelity National Title and its sister, Fidelity National Information Services, has been cashing out his stock at an accelerating rate as he expands his California winery. Foley, who said he was selling back more than $60 million shares in the two companies to help finance his winery expansion, earned $77 million last week when he cashed in 1.1 million FIS options at $15.63, then sold those shares and 500,000 more for an average of $48 each. Over the past month, Foley, who earned more than $200 million from last year’s separation of the two companies, has raised $160 million from the sale of shares in the two, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Separately, private equity giant The Texas Pacific Group, which helped capitalize FIS with a $500 million investment in 2005, sold about a fourth of its FIS stake last week–three millions shares for $140 million–leaving it with a stake of 9 million shares valued at about $425 million.

BILLINGS, Mont. – From a fistful of dollars in a car trunk, Rimrock CU has come a long way. The $26 million credit union is building a new headquarters, more than doubling its current 2,400 square-feet of space. The 6,300-foot office is slated for completion in January. The credit union was founded in 1949 to serve Billings firefighters. The 16 original members pooled a total of $63.11 and the credit union run out of the trunk of the president’s car. Three mergers brought the credit union to its present size, serving almost 5,000 members.

VERNON HILLS, Ill. – Baxter CU said yesterday it has signed with MEGA International to install the company’s MEGA Modeling Suite for enterprise architecture initiatives. Baxter CU has over $1 billion in assets and serves 130,000 members. MEGA International is based in Sharon, Mass.

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Affinity FCU is featuring more than 85 vehicles during its semi-annual car sale. The one-stop car sale will be held at Affinity’s Auto Resource Center, where members and non-members alike can qualify for a loan and leave with the car the same day. More information is available at CUCarzone.com.

ROSEBURG, Ore. – Cascade Community CU said yesterday it has signed with Creative Brand Communications, of Portland, to be its advertising agency of record. The ad firm, which has worked with the $100 million credit union since 2004, will continue efforts to enhance the credit union’s brand and increase its presence in Douglas County. Creative Brand Communications is a full-service, multi-sensory marketing and brand development agency, specializing in financial and professional services firms.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California State Assembly on Monday unanimously ratified amendments made to legislation designed to hold retailers responsible for protecting consumer information. The bill began in the California Assembly, which approved it June 5 by an overwhelming, 55-2 vote. On Sept. 6, it cleared the California State Senate by a 30-6 vote. The Senate made some technical amendments to the legislation, which brought it back to the Assembly for yesterday’s vote. The bill next moves to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk, where he will have 30 days to approve or veto it. Bill Cheney, the California CU League’s president and CEO, said in a statement: “The passage of AB 779 by an overwhelming majority of both houses makes a very strong statement for protection of consumer data. We are encouraged this positive momentum will carry forward as the Governor considers this landmark legislation.” The bill is supported by the California Credit Union League and is opposed by the California Bankers Association and other groups. The CCUL said the legislation addresses three deficiencies the credit union movement sees in California’s existing data breach notification law.

WASHINGTON – NCUA Chairman JoAnn Johnson said yesterday NCUA will continue its efforts to bring greater transparency to credit unions, even in the face of overwhelming opposition from credit union executives. Johnson told about 400 attendees of NAFCU’s annual Congressional Caucus yesterday the NCUA Board will vote a final rule expanding access to credit union books and records to members in the coming weeks, a proposal that has drawn scorn from credit union executives. The NCUA Chairman said the rule, and two others expanding disclosures on mergers and setting bylaw enforcement powers for the agency, are aimed at opening the management and governance process to rank-and-file members. "We will continue to look at what’s in the members’ best interests," said Johnson. The transparency initiatives proposed by NCUA have drawn broad condemnation from credit union executives, many of whom worry they will invite meddling and interference in credit union operations and governance.

WASHINGTON – The prospects for passage of the credit union regulatory relief bill known as CURIA are slim and getting slimmer, conceded the chief sponsor of the bill yesterday. Paul Kanjorski, the Pennsylvania Democrat who drafted the bill, told 400 attendees of NAFCU’s Congressional Caucus he thinks Congress might hold a hearing on CURIA, but he is concerned debate and a vote on the measure will get pushed aside, especially as Congress approaches the 2008 elections. "I wouldn’t anticipate there will be very much legislation," said Kanjorski. After his speech, Kanjorski told The Credit Union Journal the legislative calendar is short, even though there is more than a year left on the two-year Congress. That’s because the second year will be occupied by major issues, such as the war in Iraq and electioneering. CURIA, officially the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, has five major provisions in it, including an increase in the business loan limit for credit unions and creation of a risk-based capital system. The bill also has a provision favored by Kanjorski which would make it more difficult for credit unions to convert to mutual savings banks by requiring at least 30% of all members vote to charter switch.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA asked a federal court Friday to throw out a legal challenge to its rules governing credit union conversions to banks, arguing the shadowy Coalition for Credit Union Charter Choice lacks standing to bring the suit. The group, NCUA told the court, has failed to show that any of its purported credit union sponsors have any immediate plans to convert to a mutual savings bank. The five-year-old group, which is headed by the former CEO of a credit union-convert and is represented in court by a well-known banking lobbyist, has claimed it represents credit unions in opposing NCUA’s conversion rules, but has yet to disclose any credit union supporters. NCUA also argued the group’s case is moot because it challenges old rules that have been amended and are no longer in effect. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has scheduled a hearing on the case for Oct. 19.