HOUSTON – As it prepares to acquire the financial services operations of 7-Eleven Stores, Cardtronics is expressing doubts about the financial viability of 2,000 self-service Vcom machines, which are about to be connected to Financial Services Centers Cooperative and its shared branching network. Cardtronics, now the nation’s largest provider of ATM services, said it expects losses from the Vcom operations to continue, but may discontinue their operations if they cannot improve the underlying financial results, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the 7-Eleven deal. The Cardtronics filing came just before Sara Canepa-Bang, president of FSSC was telling members at the group’s annual meeting that they are on schedule for a roll-out of the 7-Eleven Vcoms later this summer and expect them to be a big hit with credit union members. The filing shows the company is counting on the FSSC deal to turn things around for the Vcom operations. “In the event we are not able to improve the operating results and we incur cumulative losses of $10.0 million on the Vcom business, including $1.8 million in contract termination costs, our current intent is to exit the Vcom business and utilize the Vcom machines to provide traditional ATM services,” said Cardtronics. Cardtronics said 7-Eleven’s Vcom operations incurred an operating loss of $6.3 million for 2006 and $2.3 million for the first quarter of 2007. FSSC is planning to connect its shared branch network to as many as 1,700 of the 7-Eleven Vcoms as early as this month, and another 300 or so Vcoms by year-end. The connection will gives the California-based network more than 4,000 touchpoints nationwide.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Federal credit unions converting to mutual savings banks must facilitate communications between members during the balloting and allow members to receive communications with other members electronically, NCUA said yesterday. “Our view is, if a member has provided his or her email address to the credit union for any purpose, the credit union must assume the member has agreed to accept conversion-related communications electronically,” said NCUA in a new legal opinion letter furnished to Silver, Freedman & Taff, the Washington lawyers who have engineered most of the conversion to mutual savings banks. Under NCUA’s new rules, a member who wants to communicate with other members about the conversion may request the credit union send the communication at the member’s expense by regular mail to all voting members–or electronically, if the members have already requested email notifications. Since the member must pay for the communications, the credit union must let all members know, as part of the 90-day notice of conversion, how many voting members there are and how many have agreed to accept communications in electronic form.

ONTARIO, Calif. – In a deal that will go a long way towards creating a single electronic switch for credit unions, CO-OP Financial Services announced yesterday it has completed the acquisition of CU Service Corp., the shared branching network based in Atlanta. Under the terms of the deal, announced earlier, CO-OP will own 51% of CUSC, which will connect to 1,656 credit union branches across the country, but CO-OP will retain 100% ownership of a smaller shared branch network based in Michigan, Service Centers Corp. CUSC will manage both shared branch networks.

TOLEDO, Ohio – Three members of a crime robbery pleaded guilty Monday to a spree of violent credit union hold-ups that netted them almost $1 million. Two accomplices were already convicted of the spree, which terrorized employees and members at area credit unions over a three-year period. The group was responsible for two robberies at Jeep FCU, and heists at Toledo Public Schools FCU, Champion FCU, one at Standard S&L, and an attempted robbery at Toledo Police FCU, all between 1998 and 2001, but weren’t arrested until earlier this year. The suspects were charged with RICO violations for a pattern of corrupt activities, in order to allow authorities to circumvent the statute of limitations on bank robbery charges. In each robbery the strategy was the same: masked gunmen burst in right after opening and demanded money from managers, because they had access to larger sums than tellers. The five convicted were: William Wren, 30, David Booth, 38, Milo Terry, 33, John Jackson, 33, and James Wyley, 37.

WASHINGTON – In a move threatening to open a debate within the credit union movement, the credit union-backed Center for Responsible Lending is expected to release a study today showing that overdraft protection fees charged by credit unions and banks exceed the amount of money credit unions and banks lend to cover actual overdrafts. With thousands of credit unions now offering some kind of overdraft protection, the issue could embarrass credit unions on Capitol Hill. The Center, an affiliate of Self Help CU, will also join Rep. Carolyn Maloney in calling for a move to disclose all overdraft protection fees as part of the Annual Percentage Rate. An hour later, a credit union executive testifying before Maloney’s Financial Services Subcommittee will urge Congress to consider other options to help unwary consumers. According to advance copy of her testimony, Mary Cunningham, president of USA FCU who is representing CUNA, will tell Congress that to bring overdraft programs under the Truth in Lending Act could prevent many credit unions to offering the product because the fees will exceed NCUA’s 18% interest rate caps for all credit union loans. Cunningham is expected to propose either: allowing NCUA to exempt overdraft protection fees from its 18% interest rate cap; amending Truth in Lending to define overdraft protection fees as a service fee, rather than a finance charge; or requiring only a portion of the fees that exceed the normal NSF fee to be counted as a finance charge.

NEW YORK– Members United Corporate FCU, the corporate giant created by last year’s merger of two corporate credit unions, became the first credit union to connect with SVPCO, the fledgling electronic check and image exchange. The addition of the $14 billion corporate represents the onset of the second-step marketing of the national exchange, following the earlier connections to the nation’s largest banks, most of whom are part-owners of the network, according to Susan Good, vice president of products and services at SVPCO. “We’re looking at the next level of aggregators,” Goold told The Credit Union Journal yesterday, adding that other corporates are in their sites. “We’re talking to a number of corporates. Hopefully, this won’t be the last.” Several corporates have already connected to the national check and image grid via Endpoint Exchange, the other private-sector network owned by Metavante, or the Federal Reserve, which is working to privatize the payments system. SVPCO is a conglomeration of as many as eight regional check clearinghouses that is now owned by 20 of the biggest banks, including: JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, KeyBank, Fifth Third Bank and U.S. Bank. Members United is the conglomeration of three recently merged corporate credit unions: Mid-States Corporate FCU, Empire State Corporate FCU and Central CU Fund, which recently acquired the Illinois CU League’s check processing operations.

7/10/2007 SAN ANTONIO – River City FCU said yesterday it has hired LEVEL5 consultants to help it develop and implement a growth strategy in a highly saturated market.

ATHENS, Ohio – A Pennsylvania man in a Nigerian check scam last year, was charged with passing $215,000 in phony checks on Ohio University CU. Thoma Terry allegedly passed three forged checks on the credit union, the largest one for $110,305. The credit union and its insurer, CUNA Mutual Group, are also suing Terry in civil court over the payments. Terry was involved with two others in a so-called Nigerian check scheme last year in which they convinced a local sportswriter to pay $30,000 to enable them to get access to a $250,000 payment.

ALBANY, N.Y. – Two small credit unions agreed on cease and desist orders with the New York Banking Department over violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and other regulatory issues. Niagara Frontier Federal Employees CU, a $3 million Niagara Falls credit union, was cited for non-compliance with federal and state anti-money laundering laws and rules, including the Bank Secrecy Act; as well as poor accounting, inadequate board and committee oversight and inadequate internal controls. And $5 million Niagara Falls Penn Central Employees CU was also cited for BSA violations, and inadequate controls, allowance for loan losses and asset/liability management. Both credit unions agreed to regulatory orders that require them to correct the violations.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – PSCU Financial Services announced yesterday it has renewed its long-term cards processing agreement with First Data Corp. Under the agreement, First Data will provide an extensive suite of credit and debit products to PSCU and its credit union member-owners, including debit and credit processing, ATM driving, fraud prevention services, plastics and statement production, data analytics and PIN-secured debit access via the STAR Network. First Data has provided credit and debit card processing for PSCU since 1989. First Data is in the process of being taken over by private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co for $29 billion in one of the biggest buyouts ever.

WASHINGTON – The American Bankers Association and America’s Community Bankers, which are in the process of merging, called on the Bush administration yesterday to reject a proposal to merge the regulators for banks and S&Ls. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen, the ABA and ACB said they were opposed to a cost-saving proposal which would combine the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Comptroller of the Currency. A combination, said the banking lobbyists, would decrease the competitiveness of the U.S. banking system “by negatively impacting true charter choice and the innovation and flexibility that charter choice provides.” The two lobby groups go on to say that the unique S&L charter deserves its own unique regulator. The ABA and ACB, themselves, have tentatively agreed to a merger they say will better serve banks and thrifts by unifying their lobby might and reducing costs.

HONOLULU – HawaiiUSA FCU said it has signed with TraceSecurity to provide it with online security and compliance services. Under the four-year contract, TraceSecurity will offer security training, annual on-site vulnerability assessments, annual external penetration tests and quarterly external vulnerability assessments. Included with the vulnerability assessments is TraceSecurity Compliance Manager, a patented suite of software products that goes beyond traditional security technologies such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems. TraceSecurity is based in Baton Rouge, La.

NEW YORK – Summit Business Media, LLC, publishers of the National Underwriter and Surety Bulletins, said yesterday it has completed its takeover of Wicks Business Information, owner of The Credit Union Times, Inside Counsel and Treasury & Risk magazines. It was the second time in the past 18 months the Credit Union Times has been sold. The Credit Union Times and the other Wicks titles will part of Summit’s Highline Media unit, which is led by Andrew Goodenough, former publisher of The Credit Union Journal.

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Power Financial CU said yesterday it has joined the growing list of credit unions allowing their members to make deposits from their home computers. With the credit union’s eDeposit, members may register the data for their checks at the credit union’s home banking site, then mail in the check. The member will receive immediate credit for the full amount of the deposit up to $2,000, however, the credit union must receive the check within five days.

SAN ANTONIO – River City FCU said yesterday it has hired LEVEL5 consultants to help it develop and implement a growth strategy in a highly saturated market. The $125 million credit union competes with three credit unions with more than $1 billion in assets and several other institutions for market share in San Antonio. LEVEL5 discovered that a majority of members of River City FCU’s select groups (AT&T and their subsidiaries) was moving out of its service area. LEVEL5‘s consultants analyzed the metro area and determined that there was a high concentration of potential members north of the city. These findings helped the credit union to expand its field of membership throughout the county and build a first branch to meet the increased demand. LEVEL5 is based in Atlanta.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A wife and husband who were jailed for embezzling more than $1.3 million from tiny Unified Singers FCU were formally barred from the credit union industry by NCUA yesterday. Jean Pogue, former manager of the community development credit union, her husband Joseph Pogue, and their daughter Cassandra Montgomery, who ran an insurance agency out of their home–which served as the credit union’s office–were all sentenced to prison for siphoning more than $1.3 million in phony loans from the $1.5 million credit union. They took out loans under local businesses, like Providence Missionary Baptist Church, New Hope Baptist Church and Hadley’s Funeral Home, and under phony names like Elizabeth Taylor, Clarence Strong, Joe Long and Douglas Monroe. The tiny credit union had become well-regarded in the CDCU movement and had received significant financial aid from both the Community Development Financial Institutions Program and from NCUA. It was even cited by the Brookings Institute in a 2001 study for its performance in serving low-income communities. But because of the loan scheme, NCUA was forced to take it over and liquidate it in 2002.

BURBANK, Calif. – Members of Vista FCU overwhelmingly approved a merger with Partners FCU to create a credit union giant to serve all of the Disney companies. The new credit union will retain the Partners moniker, to symbolize the spirit of the combination, and have $850 million in assets and 100,000 members. Partners was founded in 1968 at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and currently serves 42,000 members. Vista was founded in 1960 on The Walt Disney Studios Lot in Burbank and currently serves 58,000 members.

BURTON, Mich. – The more they save, the better chance members of ELGA CU have of winning the credit union’s $10,000 Savings Account Sweepstakes. Members will be entered into the Sweepstakes every time they increase their monthly Sweepstakes Savings Account balance by $40. With it they get a chance to win monthly prizes up to $1,000, and a $10,000 grand prize during the annual drawing. “We know how important it is for our members to save for their future. So, we wanted to give them an incentive to make an extra effort to save more, each and every month,” said Karen Church, president of the $200 million credit union. Members who have a minimum of $250 on deposit in their Sweepstakes account, or have made at least one deposit a month for six months, will qualify for the grand prize.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. – Patriot FCU said it paid its 41,000 members a Membership Bonus Dividend for the second straight quarter. The $200,000 second quarter payout follows a $500,000 bonus for the first quarter. The bonuses were credited to members accounts July 1 and amounted to 10% on prime membership shares accounts beginning April 1 and ending June 30; and 5% on qualifying loan interest payments for the same period.

Synergent, Westbrook, Maine, named Al Angus and Fred Barber account executive.