SALT LAKE CITY – NetDeposit Inc., a provider of Check 21 electronic check products, announced yesterday it has been granted two new patents for the processes and technologies involved in remote electronic presentment of all types of checks. The first patent covers a method of deposit processing at a central site for checks deposited at a remote site with accompanying account information. The second patent covers processing deposits at a central location that are received from remote sites and includes individual customer attributes. NetDeposit, which is a subsidiary of Zions Bank, has a number of additional patent application under review by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Zions Bank is headed by self-proclaimed credit union foe, Harris Simmons.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Dynamic Card Solutions, which markets the instant card issuer CardWizard, unveiled an instant issuing solution for chip-based and prepaid cards. Many credit unions are transitioning from magnetic stripe cards to smart card solutions to enhance security and add multi-application functionality to financial cards, but have experienced a large start-up cost, but they can reduce the start-up cost with their remote data preparation service, allowing issuers to delay the investment in an on-site data preparation infrastructure. CardWizard Chip is installed, along with an in-house data preparation system, in the issuer’s central computer room, allowing financial institutions to instantly issue cards to consumers at each branch. CardWizard Smart Start leverages a remote data preparation service, allowing issuers to delay the investment in an on-site data preparation infrastructure. This “pay as you go” option significantly reduces startup costs, complexity, and deployment time for instant issuance.

SPOKANE, Wash. – They have no office; are spread across the country; don’t travel;, but meet regularly; or use telephones: meet the Online Banking Development Cooperative, a group of credit union IT professionals who are collaborating on the online banking platform of the future. Instead, the group meets online at its own wiki, or private website designed for collaboration, taking the century-old cooperative spirit of the credit union movement onto the Internet. "It's proven to be a great way to find out if our homebanking ideas resonate with a wider credit union community," Dale Davaz, director of online services at Spokane Teachers CU, which spearheaded the collaboration at Jotspot, a wiki-provider. “The wiki platform is a perfect vehicle for free-form, peer collaboration. As new ideas are thought up week to week, the wiki lets us openly discuss and prioritize them in near real time. It organizes large amounts of information far better than trading e-mails ever could." The venture is typical of the new way credit unions are using the Internet: they brainstorm with other businesses-even competitors. And though credit unions aren't new to the idea of crossing the line to collaborate with one another, the new breed is doing it online. The philosophy is simple, as expressed by John Brozycki, information security officer at Hudson Valley FCU in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and part of the same wiki. "Innovation can happen any time people get together," he told The Credit Union Journal. "But online conferencing makes it easier to get people together and allows them to do so more frequently."

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Firemen’s CU has developed its own system that allows members to deposit check from their home computers and plans to market it to other credit union. CUDeposits will go live next month and allow members to instantly qualify for the service online and have immediate access to a deposit–in advance of mailing it to the credit union. The product is similar to UPost, a remote deposit system developed by and being marketed by Pennsylvania State Employees CU. But unlike UPost, CUDeposits will also allow members to call checks into a credit union’s call center. “Remote deposit is getting more attention in the last couple of years because credit unions are looking to differentiate themselves and offer increased convenience for members,” George Kings, vice president, information services, for L.A. Firemen’s CU, told The Credit Union Journal. CUDeposits was developed in conjunction with CUBUS Solutions Inc., a Livermore, calif.-based technology CUSO.

NEWARK, N.J. - Dozens of credit union CEOs can rest easier now that Everest National Insurance Co. has assured them they will continue to pay default protection insurance on failed subprime auto loans made through Centrix Financial Services, even though the company's legal obligation to make the payments is in dispute.

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles Firemen's Credit Union here is the nation's second CU to develop and sell a tool that allows members to deposit checks from their home computers, reflecting the industry's mass movement to offer personal deposit services online.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - NCUA Vice Chairman Rodney Hood has unveiled a new initiative aimed at raising the profile of credit unions among college students as an attractive and rewarding career choice.

MONTEREY, Calif. - Members of Monterey County Employees CU are being warned not to respond to an email asking them for personal account information.

NEW ORLEANS - Credit unions seeking greater volunteer involvement from youth should be ready to answer the question: "What's in it for me?"

FORT WORTH, Texas - A member snaps back when a contact center agent offers her life insurance (again). Or, a contact center agent raises his voice when a member calls to complain about online account access.

BOSTON - Gov. Deval Patrick, dealing with the highest foreclosure rate in the state's history, filed legislation last week that would criminalize mortgage fraud, bar foreclosure rescue scams and create a central repository on foreclosures.

AUSTIN, Texas. - NCUA Vice Chairman Rodney E. Hood told the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute (HAPI) credit unions are an excellent means to the financial education ends being championed by the group. He told the group currently, "1,000 credit unions offer alternatives to payday loans and almost all military-affiliated credit unions offer alternatives to payday lending."

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Editor's Note: the following is from a comment letter on NCUA's FOM and Chartering Manual from Charles Agricola, a former NCUA employee.

READER QUESTION

NEW ORLEANS - In the face of unbelievable physical and emotional devastation, can anyone expect to have the faith to rebuild?

CUISPA IT Risk Summit Set

LAS VEGAS - Increasingly, measuring "member satisfaction" is becoming Old School. While still important, how a credit union integrates what it learns in getting member satisfaction feedback into its operations, product offerings and member interaction is where the emerging focus is, according to several analysts.

NEW ORLEANS - Credit unions seeking greater volunteer involvement from youth should be ready to answer the question: "What's in it for me?"

NEW ORLEANS - It may take several years for Comunidad Latina FCU (CLFCU) to completely operate on its own, but that doesn't worry officials at partner institution Orange County Teachers FCU (OCTFCU). The two Santa Ana, Calif., credit unions are designed to serve two different member segments and together provide services for both English- and Spanish-speaking community members.