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.

CHICAGO - Northside Community Federal Credit Union President Ed Jacob has always received compliments on a video presentation he has shown for years. The video tells the story of a young Hispanic woman and her struggles with a Chicago payday lender, and how credit unions can help consumers break the huge interest rates charged by predatory lenders and how to make them new members.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Stan Hollen does not play the diplomat when it comes to credit unions partnering with banks. Case in point: the recent move by NAFCU Services Corp., the subsidiary of the trade association, to name Cincinnati-based Fifth-Third Bank as a "preferred provider" for ATM and debit card processing. EFT network CU24 also uses Fifth-Third, but Hollen sees a difference. "We were disappointed to see CU24 go with Fifth-Third, but it may have been the right move for them for economic reasons," he said. "But for a trade organization, which had other choices, to go with a bank processor, well, you wonder why they would do that."

ATLANTA - Mobile banking, the accessing of accounts via mobile telecommunications devices, is still seen as a secondary or emergency method of conducting banking, according to a new study.

KETCHIKAN, Alaska — A $33-million credit union here lends money to member businesses of all shapes and sizes — and it is crediting a documentation system helps make the custom fit easy and compliant.

GLASTONBURY, Conn. - Open Solutions, Inc. has acquired Securian Financial Group and its subsidiary, IA Systems, Inc., which offers the StreamLend Velocity and StreamLend product line.

SEATTLE - The producers of BizKids, the TV program aimed at kids that teaches financial lessons and which is a joint project of the National CU Foundation and Junior Achievement, said they should know within two weeks how many PBS stations will be picking the program up. Thirteen episodes have already been filmed, most in a Seattle studio by the same team that produced the acclaimed "Bill Nye The Science Guy," and two episodes are ready to go. The 10 kids who star in the show have also been taken to various locations for filming around the country. Producers told the Credit Union Journal they are confident the program will be picked up by PBS affiliates, and 26 episodes are in the process of being created in all. Unlike network television, local PBS stations use their own discretion to decide which programs to buy and air. The only mention of credit unions in the program is at the top and bottom of the program when the message, "America's Credit Unions: Where People Are Worth More Than Money" is aired. Credit unions have pledged more than $2.6-million through various sources to underwrite production of the program.

KETCHIKAN, Alaska - A $33-million credit union here lends money to member businesses of all shapes and sizes-and it is crediting a documentation system helps make the custom fit easy and compliant.

MADISON - Even in a stagnant economy, there are a number of hidden opportunities for credit unions to continue to thrive, the key, several economists said, is understanding where CU strengths play to economic weaknesses (and vice versa).

SPOKANE, Wash. - Meet the newly-formed OBDC, six credit unions with a mission: dream up the perfect online banking platform.

TULSA, Okla. - Oklahoma CU League CEO Lisa Finley is leaving the state trade association for personal reasons unrelated to her work there, and Debra J. "D.J." Morrow Ingram has been tapped interim CEO.

PASADENA, Calif. - Economic trends are not looking good, especially in the housing and credit markets. But there is the one consolation, two credit union economists suggested, and that is that CUs tend to do well in tough times.

SPOKANE, Wash. - Meet the newly-formed OBDC, six credit unions with a mission: dream up the perfect online banking platform.

The Credit Union Journal is announcing its Call for Entries for its Best Practices awards. It's easy to enter!

MADISON, Wis. - Not too surprisingly, issues related to membership growth led a "Top 10" list of key trends and challenges facing credit unions in the coming years, according to a new study.

LANSING, Mich. - The credit union representing Michigan state workers is prepared to offer low-interest fixed-rate loans to its members who may be impacted by the state's current fiscal year budget crisis.

Hearings

The Minnesota Credit Union Network, elected to its board: Richard Nesvold, chairman; Harry Carter, vice chairman; Kyle Markland, secretary/treasurer; Doug Hallstrom, Karen Fleming, Jeff Hegna and Jeff Schwalen.

NEW ORLEANS - In honor of the help the Big Easy and its credit unions have received from the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, ASI FCU here has named its Upper Ninth Ward community center for NFCDCU Executive Director Cliff Rosenthal.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - NCUA last week shed itself of two financially ailing credit unions it had been operating under conservatorship, New Horizons Community Credit Union and Obelisk Credit Union.