BROOKFIELD, Wis. – Credit union outsourcer Fiserv said second quarter earnings declined 8% as rising expenses offset revenue growth. Net income for the second quarter was $108.2 million, or 64 cents a share, down from $117.7 million, or 59 cents a share. The gain in per share earnings was due to the company’s repurchase of 3.4 million of its shares. Revenues rose by 12% for the second quarter, compared to the same period last year. For the first six months of the year Fiserv reported a 12% rise in revenues, but net income declined by 5% to $221.8 million, or $1.30 a share, compared to the first half last year.

WASHINGTON – American Airlines FCU President John Tippets will tout the benefits of early savings accounts as part of a new savings project launched today by the Aspen Institute, a national endowment and think tank. Tippets, who plans to retire next spring, will top of 17 years at as CEO of the credit union giant with his presentation on Capitol Hill as part of the think tank’s Initiative on Financial Security. Tippets plans to compare child savings accounts to his experience saving war bonds in the 1940's. “Child accounts have the similar opportunity as a tool for financial education to open the eyes of all young Americans about savings and about ownership, about compounding and investing,” he plans to say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. The Aspen Institute, which recently hired community development credit union activist Bill Meyers, bills its project as business-driven approach to create smart solutions that help Americans save, invest and own The $4 billion American Airlines FCU has appointed Angela Owens as its chief operating officer and heir apparent to Tippets, who told The Credit Union Journal he plans to retire next spring.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Federal antitrust regulators announced Friday they have cleared the takeover of eFunds Corp. by Fidelity National Information Services for $1.8 billion. The Federal Trade Commission said the deal received an early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act. eFunds is the processor for transactions conducted over the credit union-owned CO-OP Financial Services ATM network.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – State chartered credit unions are not required to use the words ‘credit union’ on their public signage, the state regulator ruled. The interpretative ruling, issued last week to an anonymous credit union, furthers the move to blur the marketing distinctions between credit unions and banks and S&Ls. However, those credit unions that want to use a trade name that differs from their registered credit union name must notify the Department of Financial Institutions of its plans, and avoid any names that may be misleading, inaccurate, deceptive or misrepresent the credit union’s services, the DFI ruled. The credit union must also use its full official charter name (with the words credit union) on all communications with the state regulator or in legal documents.

MAUI, Hi. – Members of Maui Teacher’s FCU were required to elect a new board by special ballot after NCUA ruled that the five-person panel was elected in violation of the credit union’s own bylaws for the past 20 years. NCUA removed all directors of the $17 million credit union and ordered new elections after it found that the chairman of the elections committee did not call for nominations from the floor, as required in the credit union’s bylaws. An official with the credit union would not comment. The chairman of the board did not return a phone call.

WASHINGTON – Congressional FCU and Pentagon FCU have agreed to help enroll government employees in a new program that will speed them through airport security lines. The two credit unions will help a private contractor, called Clear, to enroll frequent fliers in the government’s new registered traveler program, allowing fliers to speed through security lines with the stroke of an identification card. Congressional FCU will host an enrollment at the Longworth Congressional Office Building and Pentagon FCU at the Pentagon, in preparation for the launch of the program at Reagan and Dulles airports. Clear, which was founded by Steven Brill, creator of Court TV, has already enrolled more than 53,000 frequent fliers at Orlando, JFK, San Jose, Cincinnati and Indianapolis airports.

WASHINGTON – Bankers from all over the country are up in arms about a proposal by NCUA to broaden community chartering requirements and are indicating a new legal challenge is in store if the NCUA Board approves it as a final rule. The opposition, illustrated in comment letters submitted to NCUA, is noteworthy because it includes numerous banks and the California, Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, North Carolina and Ohio bankers associations, but also Wells Fargo, indicating that the nation’s largest banks are now getting involved in the fight against credit unions. The proposal, wrote Mark Lliteras, vice president of Southern Idaho commercial lending for Wells Fargo, “would significantly expand the definition of community beyond any reasonable definition of ‘local’ and circumvents Congressional intent as expressed in the Credit Union Membership Access Act.” NCUA’s proposal would automatically establish as a valid community certain core based statistical areas—a definition established by the White House Budget Office. The NCUA proposals comes as applications for community charters are rapidly drying up, with just one application approved last month, and only 17 approved through the first six months of the year, down from an average of more than 10 a month for each of the last seven years.

MADISON, Wis. - The World Council of Credit Unions has named Hong Kong as the site for its 2008 World Credit Union Conference, and People's Bank of China Deputy Governor Madame Wu Xiaoling, is tentatively slated as a feature speaker.

The concept of "best practices" is routinely used when discussing benchmarking operational approaches. Establishing benchmark best practices are reliable methods that over time prove to have desirable outcomes.

WASHINGTON - Several consumer and civil rights groups are slamming a Federal Trade Commission report on the use of insurance credit scoring, calling the study "defective" and "biased insurance industry propaganda."

HONOLULU - NCUA is putting together a proposed rule that would could prevent attempted hostile takeovers of credit unions, such as the one that lit up the credit union movement in controversy this spring.

WASHINGTON - Several consumer and civil rights groups are slamming a Federal Trade Commission report on the use of insurance credit scoring, calling the study "defective" and "biased insurance industry propaganda."

WASHINGTON - In its latest round of advertising, America' Credit Unions-a joint project by CUNA and NAFCU-features a General Accountability Office (GAO) report noting that taxpayers are subsidizing the banking industry by $1.3 billion to $1.9 billion each year, despite the fact that banks are the U.S.'s most profitable industry since 2000.

HONOLULU - The Department of Defense is looking to work with regulators and credit unions to strengthen rules related to abusive credit practices, according to a spokesperson.

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.

HONOLULU - Robert Reich, the former secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration, also offered these observations to NAFCU's recent annual meeting:

NEW YORK - Veterans of service to underserved communities are now making their expertise available to the numerous credit unions expanding into such fields of membership.

MADISON, Wis. - If the World Council of Credit Union's recent initiatives in China prove successful, the worldwide credit union movement has the opportunity to more than double in size, according to WOCCU CEO Pete Crear.

Rule Would Allow Foreign Currency Investments

HARRISBURG, Penn. - Last month, Rick Myxter, the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association's EVP of credit union development, took his sixth trip to Kenya as part of a World Council of Credit Unions contingent assigned to help the country's growing Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) system better serve its members. In addition to covering education and regulatory issues, Myxter's trip included a taste of SACCOs' social mission, part of the system's nationwide effort to improve the lives Kenya's 34.7 million people.