WASHINGTON – CUNA continued to sprinkle campaign contributions last month on sponsors of the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, or prospective CURIA sponsors, as the list of signees to the bill topped 100 earlier this week. Among those CURIA sponsors who received campaign contributions last month were: Reps. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa. ($10,000), the chief sponsor of the bill; Dan Burton, D-Ind. ($10,000); Rick Larsen, D-Wash. ($1,000); Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-Ohio ($2,500); Ted Poe, R-Texas ($1,000); Bart Stupak, D-Mich. ($2,500); Bob Filner, R-Calif. ($1,000); Dan Lipinski, D-Ill. ($1,000); Ed Royce, R-Calif. ($2,500); George Radanovich, R-Calif. ($2,000); Gus Bilarkis, R-Fla ($1,000); Henry Brown, R-S.C. ($5,000); James Walsh, R-N.Y. ($500); Joa Baca, D-Calif. ($1,000); Jon Porter, R-Nev. ($3,000); Tim Walberg, D-Mich. ($1,000); Mike Michaud, D-Me. ($2,500); Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich. ($1,100) and Ric Keller, R-Fla. ($3,000). CUNA also contributed to several leadership PACs last month, including: BRIDGE PAC ($5,000), operated by South Carolina Democrat James Clyburn; America Forward Leadership PAC, which supports Democrats ($1,000); Victory Now PAC, run by Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland ($2,000); Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's AmeriPAC, Republicans ($2,500) and Growth and Prosperity PAC, for Alabama’s Spencer Bachus, the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee ($5,000). CUNA’s PAC raised $237,000 last month and spent $171,000, building its cash on hand to $302,000.

WASHINGTON – Federal antitrust regulators have cleared the massive takeover of student loan giant Sallie Mae by private equity fund J.C. Flowers & Co. and student loan competitors Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. The group has agreed to pay $60 a share, or $25 billion, for Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest provider of student loans and related services, which manages more than $150 billion in student loans. Chase and BofA are also among the top five providers of student loans in the country. Sallie Mae was chartered in 1972 to provide a secondary market for guaranteed student loans originated by credit unions and banks–like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do for the mortgage market–but shed its government charter in recent years, which enabled it to become the largest originator of student loans in direct competition with its credit union and bank customers.

AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas CU Commission has proposed a new rule which would effectively ban all hostile credit union takeovers. The proposal issued for public comment, would prohobit a credit union from offering a merger inducement to another credit union’s members as a means of promoting a merger of the two credit unions. The ban was recommended by the Texas CU League, which was opposed to the recent hostile takeover attempt by Wings Financial FCU of Continental FCU in which Wings offered Continental’s members $200 each if the takeover was successful. Wings eventually withdraw the offer after NCUA ruled that federal rules prohibit such pre-merger inducements.

OGDEN, Utah – America First FCU has become the first credit union in the nation to offer the VISA Gift Card with personalized photos. Gift cards from $10 to $750 can be customized online at the credit union’s site by uploading a photo, customizing the appearance of the card. The cards will be delivered in five to seven business days. Cardholders will be able to access their card information and balances online. Members also have the option of registering their gift cards online for protection against lost or stolen cards.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – South Carolina Firefighters FCU, chartered less than a year ago, has sprung into action following Tuesday’s tragic deaths of nine firemen here and is helping to raise funds for to help support the families. The fledgling credit union is helping to mobilize firefighters and the credit union community across the country to raise funds for a Friday memorial for the nine firefighters, and to provide financial assistance for their families, according to Bill Kennedy, president of the $2.3 million credit union start-up. “This is our opportunity to step up when we should step up,” Kennedy told The Credit Union Journal. The nine men were killed just before dawn Tuesday when the roof on warehouse where they were fighting a fire collapsed on them. The fundraising is being organized through the National CU Foundation’s new CUAid, created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to organize relief for victims of disaster. Contributions can be sent at the web address cuaid.coop. The South Carolina Firefighters FCU was organized by the South Carolina Firefighters Association, which has provided the new credit union with an office in its Columbia headquarters and is paying the manager’s salary.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Just months after abandoning its bid for a banking charter, Wal-Mart Stores unveiled plans yesterday to expand its chain of MoneyCenter financial service facilities to 1,000 of its stores by 2008. The Centers, many of which will compete with in-store credit union and bank branches, will be aimed at the growing unbanked and underbanked market, the company said. Wal-Mart already operates 225 MoneyCenters, which provide check cashing, money transfers, bill payment and money orders, and will offer the company’s new prepaid Visa debit card, also rolled out yesterday. The company is also building its own ATM network, which it has tested in several locations. Credit union representatives, who have been expanding their Wal-Mart branches–First Community CU opened a branch inside the new Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Collinsville, Mo., this week–were trying to digest yesterday’s news. Taylor Scott, vice president of new branch development at ORNL FCU, said he believes the Wal-Mart plans are aimed at moving the high volume of check cashing and other financial services from the customer service desk to a designated area to speed up services. “It sounds a lot worse than what it is for credit unions that are in Wal-Mart now,” said Scott, whose Tennessee credit union operates three Wal-Mart branches and plans another. “They may hand out brochures about lending and other stuff, but they’re not going to doing any lending, as far as I know.” Representatives of Landmark CU, which operates two Wal-Mart branches in Milwaukee, questioned the company’s commitment earlier this year to stay out of retail banking. “If that’s not banking activity, I don’t know what is,” said Pat Ramson, spokesman for $1.1 billion credit union, of the financial services to be offered at the MoneyCenters. More than 300 credit unions and banks operate about 1,300 branches inside Wal-Marts, about 135 of which are credit unions. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart withdrew its application for an industrial loan company charter after the banking bid caused a furor among community banks–many of which operate Wal-Mart branches--who worry the retail giant would compete with them for customers. During the controversy, Wal-Mart insisted it had no plans to create a retail branch network, but only wanted the bank charter to access the Federal Reserve’s payments system, in order to save on the billions of dollars in payments processing and interchange fees it pays each year. The company has obtain approval and has begun building a retail bank network in Mexico.

SALT LAKE CITY – A man who planned to rob Utah Community CU, then make his getaway by floating down the adjacent Provo River on inner tubes, is headed up the river instead. Patrick Burr, who robbery plan was ill-fated from the start, was sentenced yesterday to 27 months in prison. ‘It was not a well though-out deal,’ said federal Judge Dee Benson, in sentencing the 46-year-old would-be thief. Burr and his wife, Heather Burr, pleaded guilty in April to last November’s foiled hold-up, after which the two were to escape by floating down the river on inner tubes. The plan hit snags even before the Dec. 1 robbery date; first after Heather Burr’s car, which had the inner tubes in the back was impounded by police for insurance infractions Then Patrick Burr’s best friend, to whom he had confided his plan, turned out to be a police informant who turned them in. The Burr’s were arrested the day before the robbery was scheduled to take place. Burr’s 34-year-old wife is scheduled to be sentenced next week.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Empower CU is missing as much as $80,000 from member accounts and a temporary teller has been charged with helping steal the money. Investigators say Renee Gooden, 36, would get into people's accounts and figure out their passwords, then have a friend come to the credit union and identify themselves as that person, say the password and withdraw money. At least nine unidentified people are believed to have come to the credit union and withdrawn funds on behalf of Gooden, detectives said. Gooden is no longer working at the credit union.

SAN ANTONIO – United San Antonio FCU announced yesterday it has been approved by the Small Business Administration to offer its members guaranteed loans under the SBA’s 7(a) program. Under the 7(a) program, the SBA will guarantee up to $1.5 million of the loan made by a private-sector lender provided the total loan amount does not exceed $2 million. United San Antonio FCU has about $215 million in assets and serves the surrounding Bexxar County. There are about 15 credit union that participate in the SBA guaranteed loan program.

PURCHASE, N.Y. – MasterCard has unveiled a new system that will allow cardholders to keep the same card and account numbers when they switch cards to a new card program to take advantage of discounts or promotions. The patent-pending MasterCard Product Graduation offers more flexibility and ease for cardholders, merchants and financial institutions that manage their accounts. Retaining the same card numbers will allow cardholders to maintain their recurring bill payments, online shopping profiles and other automatic payments.

MADISON, Wis. – The Filene Research Institute i3 innovation group is looking for the next credit union TV stars to participating in a reality show in which members compete for the prize as best savers. The reality TCV component of the ‘Savings Revolution’ has already been piloted by GECU in El Paso, Texas, which has six families working through financial challenges to meet their goals. The program relies on local media partnerships and credit union partnership to monitor the progress of competing members working to reach their savings and debt reduction goals over a year. Following the format of reality TV’s Extreme Makeover show, the media airs 90-second vignette which capture the ups and downs of the families as they work towards their goal. The Savings Revolution can be tailored to fit any credit union’s local market, either for local TV, radio or print. The i3 group is developing a web tool that will allow members to set and achieve their own savings and debt reduction goals.

WASHINGTON – Continuing efforts to reform credit practices, the Democratic leadership of the House Financial Services Committee introduced a bill yesterday to allow consumers to ‘freeze’ their credit if they believe their credit reports are erroneous or the target of identity thieves. A similar bill died in the last Congress. The credit freeze bid, which has been passed in almost a dozen states, would not affect the ongoing use of credit cards or other existing lines of credit, but would prevent the opening of any new credit lines, according to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairman of the Financial Services Committee’s subcommittee on Financial Institutions. The credit freeze “should be available to everyone and is the only means available to prevent wrong information from ruining your credit and helps prevent identity theft,” said Maloney during yesterday’s hearing on consumers’ ability to change or correct inaccurate information. Since taking control of the House and Senate committees the Democrats have introduced a variety of consumer credit bills, which also includes expansion of credit card disclosures and a ban on certain credit card practices; and proposals to reign in predatory mortgage lending.

ARLINGTON, Va. – Credit unions are almost unanimous (97%) that they spend more time complying with regulations than they did five years ago, and just a few (5%) believe the situation will improve over the next year, according to a new survey by NAFCU. The monthly Flash report found that the average credit union spends 5% of its staff time on regulatory compliance and as many as 25% of credit unions spend at least half of their staff time on regulatory issues. Almost all of respondents (91%) say compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act is the most burdensome regulation. Small minorities identified Reg Z as the most burdensome (3%); Reg E, the USA Patriot ACT, and NCUA/FASB accounting standards (2%). Most of the credit unions surveyed do their compliance work in-house, but compliance outsourcing is becoming more popular, with 25% of respondents say they outsource as much as 15% of their regulatory work.

WASHINGTON – CUNA called on NCUA yesterday to reject a proposal to open up the merger process to more disclosures on the exchange of compensation among participating executives, one of several proposals NCUA has made to increase the transparency of credit unions. “In our view, NCUA has not provided adequate substantiation to credit unions as to why the rule is necessary,” said CUNA in a comment letter signed by Mary Dunn, deputy general counsel. In proposing the rule, NCUA is seeking to make available to members any material compensation paid to senior executives of merging credit unions, some whom are paid substantial retirement benefits as part of a merger. Such compensation is currently secretive and is rarely made public, but is common practice when a smaller credit union is merged out of existence and the manager goes into retirement. NCUA has expressed concern that such promises of compensation could affect merger decisions, to the detriment of members. In their comment letter, CUNA said NCUA has not demonstrated how it came to set a threshold of materiality for disclosures, and the proposal could open up credit union pay figures to individual members, adding to regulatory burden. If adopted, the disclosure “could have a chilling effect on mergers,” said Dunn. The proposal is one of several major rules issued for comment aimed at opening up credit union operations to members. Another one would set out the rules for member access to records of board and management meetings. Another one would allow NCUA to enforce credit union bylaws, including those on access to records and other disclosures.

HOUSTON – Cardtronics Inc. said yesterday it signed a deal to co-brand nine ATMs with State Employees CU of Florida in the Tallahassee area, the company’s first co-branding deal with a credit union. The deal comes a week after Cardtronics announced it is taking over operation of 5,500 ATMs in 7-Eleven convenience stores, a major contact point for the credit union-owned CO-OP Network and Financial Services Centers Cooperative shared branching network. It also positions Cardtronics as a competitor in some markets with the CO-OP. Cardtronics has been striking co-branding deals with several major banks over the past few years, including JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia and Sovereign Bank which offers the banks customers surcharge-free access to Cardtronics machines in selected locations. The SECU deal will co-brand Cardtronics ATMs in Walgreen’s stores in Leon County, home of the $250 million credit union. Each of the nine machines will be equipped with the SECU logo and SECU transaction screens. Other co-branding deals with credit unions are in the works, according to Cardtronics. “We’ve got a couple more credit unions we’re going to announce, but we’re not quite ready yet,” Joel Antonini, a Cardtronics spokesman, told The Credit Union Journal yesterday. Over the past two years, Cardtronics has not only established itself as the dominant independent operator of ATMs, but a critical electronic funds transfer services for credit unions. During that time, the company signed deals with the Credit Union 24 EFT network to provide access to its credit unions, and acquired the surcharge-free Allpoint network, which provides access to hundreds of credit unions. The 7-Eleven deal will give it direct access to The CO-OP Network. And next month, 7-Eleven will connect almost 2,000 of its ATMs, all Vcom self-service kiosks, to FSCC.

MINNEAPOLIS – Call it a new addition to the credit union family. A woman gave birth in the parking lot of City County FCU Monday after her mother stopped by to withdraw cash. “I went in to get some cash; next thing I know my daughter’s on all fours,” said Jody Hall, who delivered her daughter’s baby boy right there in the parking lot. Hall and her daughter, Kanisha Hall-Poston had sent the previous three hours at Abbott Northwestern Hospital trying to induce the delivery, but were sent home by doctors when the baby wouldn’t cooperate. On their way home the soon-to-be grandma had to stop to get cash from her credit union. When she returned to her waiting daughter the baby was on his way. A friend who had accompanied the mother and daughter to the hospital called 911, but the paramedics were too late to aid the delivery. Mother and newborn son, Elijah, were fine yesterday and were enjoying the first moments together.

ROANOKE, Va. – A former member representatives for CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Co. is expected to draw a prison sentence after pleading guilty to draining as much as $2.5 million from customers of the credit union insurer. Monica Yates, 40, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering charges and is scheduled to be sentenced July 18. After leaving CUNA Mutual Life in May 2006, Yates convinced as many as 18 policyholders to terminate their longterm CUNA Mutual financial products, and invest them in a fictitious variable annuity. She prepared phony account statements to show the victims the funds were being invested and earning monthly interest. She also failed to tell her victims that termination of the CUNA Mutual products carried heavy early cancellation fees. She also victimized at least four customers at Merrill Lynch, where she went to work briefly after leaving CUNA Mutual. The funds were all deposited into Yates’ own account at Bank of America. Actual losses to the victims, not counting early cancellation fees and lost interest, was $1.3 million.

SAN FRANCISCO – Four credit unions will share almost $1.1 million in affordable housing program grants awarded yesterday by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. The grants went to: Arizona State CU ($600,000) to help finance construction of a new 30-unit project of affordable homes in south Tucson; Meriwest CU ($250,000) to help finance construction of a 12-unit rental project for the transition of homeless people, also in Tucson; Altura CU ($261,000) to help finance construction of a new 12-unit rental project in Coachella; and Santa Cruz Community CU ($20,000) to help finance construction of two units of for low- and very low-income residents in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity in Santa Cruz. The grants were part of a total of $34.7 million in affordable housing funds awarded yesterday by the San Francisco FHLB.

CINCINNATI – A bogus check ring that deposited phony county and state checks in Cinco CU and Fifth Third Bank was charged yesterday in a multi-count federal indictment. Ten individuals were charged with trafficking in tens of thousands of dollars in counterfeit checks, some of which were cashed at local stores and gas station. More than $20,000 of the checks was deposited into personal accounts at the two financial institutions, then withdrawn as cash, authorities said.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.–The Credit Union Journal is now accepting nominations for its 2007 Best Practices Awards. The deadline for entries is July 13. The Journal’s Third Annual Best Practices Awards program has developed into one of the most widely recognized forums for the sharing of practices worthy of emulation within the credit union community, and it’s easy to enter. Nominations may be submitted by credit unions themselves, a CUSO or even another CU. Nominations can also be submitted by suppliers to the credit union community that have clients they believe exemplify a best practice in implementing a particular product or service. The criteria are: 1) The best practice must have been deployed since June 1, 2006. 2) Credit union (or vendor) selects (or even creates) a category and nominates itself/client CU. 3) The entry should include: 500 words or less on why it believes it has created a best practice within its operation. The nomination essay should include as many tangible measures as practical (including ROI where available) documenting the best practice; the background on environment prior to the implementation of the best practice, and factor driving adoption of the best practice, and any new products/solutions deployed to achieve the best practice. 4) A credit union may enter more than one category. 5) Nominations should be e-mailed to the Managing Editor Lisa Freeman at 1. lfreeman@cujournal.com. Winners will be profiled in Credit Union Journal later this year.