WACO, Texas – First Central CU was forced to close its new branch in the largely Hispanic neighborhood of Franklin Ave. after the outlet was robbed for the third time since March. The credit union board wasted little time closing the branch after the Aug. 6 armed robbery, voting two days later to shut it down. A letter posted at the branch the following morning told members, "Last evening, our board of directors met and decided that in the best interest of our members and employees, we would close our Franklin Avenue office immediately." The letter cited the "safety of our employees and members" as the reason. The branch was opened less than two years ago as part of the Texas CU League’s Juntos Avenzamos, or “together we advance” program aimed at educating Hispanic consumers about credit unions. A suspect has been arrested for the Aug. 6 robbery, but police don’t believe he is the same robber who hit the branch on June 27 or March 12.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Debt Resolve, operator of an online consumer debt collection system, announced yesterday it was issued a U.S. patent for a system of consumer debt resettlement. Combined with the company’s other patents, the new patent grants Debt Resolve rights over the method through which a creditor may offer multiple payment options to a debtor (credit cards, checks, electronic funds transfer, PayPal, Western Union) and the ability to automatically make an immediate payment online. DebtResolve provides lenders, collection agencies, debt buyers and utilities with a patented online bidding system for the resolution and settlement of consumer debt. The company’s First Performance Corp. unit is a collection agency for credit unions, banks, finance companies and purchasers of distressed debt.

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Internet search engine Google has filed an application for a patent for a text message payment system which would compete with the fledgling mobile payments systems being offered by dozens of credit unions and banks. The GPay patent would use an SMS text message from a mobile phone to trigger a “computer-implemented method of effectuating an electronic online payment.” A user would send a text message to Google that gives details of a payment to a specified payee. GPay would debit the user's bank account and credit the payee. The patent application was filed in February 2006 but only became public last week, fueling speculation Google also is developing a new Internet-enabled phone, dubbed GPhone. Speculation is rife that Google will roll out the GPhone with the GPay payment system pre-installed. Google introduced its own online payments system, called Google Checkout, about 14 months ago, which competes with eBay’s PayPal online payments system.

AUSTIN — University FCU is the latest credit union to join the Green Movement and plans to open its first environmentally friendly branch here.

FT. MYERS, Fla. – A third failed credit union was charged with fraud and securities violations in a civil suit filed in federal court here last week in relation to an expanding Florida land bust. The suit alleges that Denver-based New Horizons Community FCU, which was taken over by NCUA last year, then sold off in June, was party to speculative real estate scheme that also sunk Norlarco CU in Colorado and Huron River Area FCU in Michigan. The suit alleges that New Horizons was part of a program called Millionaire University that purportedly taught low- and middle-income people how to become rich speculating in two developments near the Gulf of Mexico, called Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres. Kinnith and Deborah Norris claim they made a downpayment of just $4,000 to borrow $835,000 in construction loans for four ‘pre-leased’ homes through First Homes Builders, which were then converted to permanent financing by New Horizons Community FCU. For a $1,000 downpayment. the Norrises were provided a $210,000 loan to build a three-bedroom house that would be occupied for a year, then sold for a guaranteed 14% return. Like thousands of other investors in Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres, the Norrisses are in default on their loans because all of the properties lie vacant. NCUA, acting as liquidating agent for New Horizons Community FCU, filed a motion with the court electronically yesterday to dismiss the case, arguing that the investors failed to exhaust their administrative remedies by appealing their case to NCUA before the courts. The exposure for credit unions is enormous, with the three credit unions have more than $500 million in loans out to the two developments, and dozens more holding loan participations.

ST. CHARLES, Ill. – A 22-year-old former teller at Corporate America Family CU pleaded guilty Friday to plotting with her boyfriend to rob the credit union in a plot that netted them $38,250. Crystal Bass gave the cash to her boyfriend’s roommate after telling the two how the credit union had been robbed before when a man “simply handed the teller a demand note.” The 21-year-old boyfriend, Joshua Hreha, had decided to stage the robbery the day after the Memorial Day holiday, on June 1, 2006, because Bass expected the credit union to have more cash on hand at that time. Hreha and Bass told the roommate, Brian Nelson, he and his girlfriend would be inside the credit union at the time so they could give police a false description of the robber. Hreha and Nelson both have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

GRANITE CITY, Ill. – A 24-year-old bank robber was convicted by a federal jury last week of robbing two credit unions of $60,000. Three others involved in the robberies at Granite City Steel CU on July 5, 2006, and at Olin Community CU on July 16, 2006, have pleaded guilty and a fifth suspect is awaiting trial. Montez Fuller is awaiting sentencing after being convicted on charges of aggravated robbery and the use of a weapon to commit a violent crime.

AUGUSTA, Maine – Synergent, a CUSO operated by the Maine CU League, will distribute rebates totaling $500,000 to the League’s 200 credit union members. The rebates are for fiscal year Aug. 1, 2006 through July 31, 2007. The size of each credit union’s rebate is based on individual credit union sales, with some members receiving checks of as much as $20,000.

AUSTIN, Texas – University FCU is the latest credit union to join the Green Movement and plans to open its first environmentally friendly branch here. The $800 million credit union plans to use rainwater cisterns, to install solar panels to channel sunlight for energy and to use native plants that often need less water than non-indigenous species. The branch will be located on Ben White Boulevard, just east of Congress Avenue.

BILOXI, Miss. – Keesler FCU, one of the most heavily damaged credit unions by Hurricane Katrina, was given an ATM from Triton last week to commemorate the second anniversary of the massive storm. Keesler, which Triton employees are eligible to join, is the largest credit union in the state with 185,000 members. The donated ATM, an FT7000 model, went into production just last month at Triton’s nearby Long Beach, Miss., manufacturing plant, and is the company’s first full-function, through-the-wall unit designed for financial institutions. “Because the Mississippi Gulf Coast is our home, we understand first hand the hardships that the people and businesses of this region have suffered since Katrina," said Triton President Brian Katt in a statement. "We are proud to be part of the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast."

DAYTON, Ohio – Wright-Patt CU, the state’s largest credit union, said it is opening a new branch in Springfield next year, one of three new outlets planned. The other two will be in Beavercreek and in west Dayton. The $1.2 billion credit union currently operates 18 branches.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Members of Notre Dame FCU are being targeted by a new online scam. The scam begins with a phony e-mail warning members about clicking on certain links, then follows up with an e-mail that directs them to a phony website that looks like the credit union’s site. The fake site prompts members to re-enter sensitive information, including their account number, password and ATM PIN, expiration date, security code and password. It is not clear whether any credit union members fell for the scam.

DENVER – Colorado State Employees CU became the latest credit union to eliminate “state employees” from its name to focus on a broader membership base, becoming Credit Union of Colorado. The change follows decisions over the past year by Michigan State Employees CU to change its name to NuUnion CU, and by New York State Employees FCU to be known as SEFCU. Officials of the $750 million Colorado credit union said the name was changed to reflect the 73-year-old credit union’s membership base outside state government, which includes county and municipal employees and college students, among others.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Authorities believe hundreds of investors in speculative Florida real estate ventures qualified for membership in at least one of three failed credit unions by joining unaffiliated non-profits that served as select groups. Some of the investors were able to join Norlarco CU by paying nominal membership fees to Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, Boy and Girls Club of Larimer County, or Legacy Land Trust, according to Chris Myklebust, commissioner of the Colorado Department of Financial Services. Norlarco was one of at least three credit unions–the others are Huron Rivera Area FCU and New Horizons Community FCU–that failed after lending hundreds of millions of dollars to speculative real estate investors throughout the east coast. Hundreds of the investors, from as far away as Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Georgia and Maryland, have filed suit alleging fraud in the sale of the Florida Gulf Coast properties, known as Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres. All three of the credit unions were taken over by NCUA. The bust of the Florida developments threatens to grow into one of the biggest failures in credit union history, with the three failed institutions holding more than $500 million worth of loans to the two projects and dozens more credit unions holding loan participations. Myklebust said last week he is concerned about the status of Norlarco CU after reports of a secret, three-month conservatorship emerged, saying members have accelerated withdrawals since then. "It was business as usual up until about a week ago, when the news media got wind of it," he told The Credit Union Journal. Meantime, real estate delinquencies for Norlarco jumped 25% last month, to $70 million, compared to just $1 million a year ago.

WALL STREET – Credit unions may be able to earn some money in the mortgage market while waiting to see whether the Fed acts on interest rates next week, according to market participants. In fact, spreads have widened in the market for mortgage-backed securities over the past three weeks, especially for highly rated agency paper, according to Christopher Sullivan, chief financial officer for United Nations FCU. The $2.5 billion credit union has boosted returns on its $1.2 billion in investments by picking some well-situated mortgage bonds, including a 5/1 Ginnie Mae ARM yielding 5.7% and a 10-year Freddie Mac ARM yielding 6%. The credit union is holding taxable municipal bonds yielding 5.46%. Sullivan also holds about $120 million in floating-rate securities, most of it bank notes or CDs indexed to LIBOR and yielding 5.62%. Although prices on U.S. Treasury bonds have rallied in recent weeks with the so-called flight to safety, mortgage-backed securities still are paying a hefty premium to Treasuries. Observers are wondering whether the Fed will trim short-term interest rates when it meets Sept. 18.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Members and employees of U.S. New Mexico FCU were evacuated last Thursday after a bomb threat demanding money was called in, one of more than two dozen bomb threats across the country being probed in an international investigation. The FBI and Interpol have identified a suspect in Portugal who is apparently using bomb scares to extort cash from U.S. businesses. The targeted businesses–which include several Wal-Mart stores, a U.S. Bank branch in Cincinnati, a Safeway in Sandy, Ore., and a Macy’s in Orem, Utah–have wired more than $13,000 to the suspect through Western Union. In Newport, R.I., employees at a Wal-Mart received three calls last Tuesday morning and wired three payments totaling $10,000 to an account out of the country. At a Dillon’s grocery store in Hutchinson, Kan., customers took off their clothes after the caller threatened to detonate a bomb. An FBI agent told The Credit Union Journal Friday the number of businesses threatened had risen to more than 24. At the end of last week, two suspects were arrested for copycat threats, he said.

Throughout 2007, the Credit Union Journal is profiling the credit unions of each U.S. state and D.C. Rather than appear in alphabetical order, the states are being featured in the order they became states.

BEDFORD, Mass. - The RSA Anti-Fraud Command Center (AFCC) is reporting what it calls an "interesting" development in the underground community of fraudsters who create "phishing kits."

PORTLAND, Ore. - An ex-con on parole for a bank robbery sentence was arrested in connection with as many as eight credit union robberies in the past two months.

BOISE, Idaho - Teachers and credit union professionals gathered at four training sessions across Idaho as part of an effort to teach teachers how to teach teens about finances, and why such skills are important. LaRaye O'Brien from the Idaho Credit Union League and Lyle Hansen from the University of Idaho Cooperative Extension Service, Idaho's representatives for the 2007 edition of the NEFE High School Financial Planning Program, conducted the teacher training in Twin Falls, Pocatello, Lewiston and Meridian Idaho. The workshops were sponsored by Magic Valley FCU in Twin Falls, Pocatello Teachers FCU in Pocatello, Lewis Clark CU in Lewiston, and Capital Educators FCU in Meridian.