Consumers Deserve Financial Svc.

HOUSTON - Cardtronics Inc., the nation's largest operator of ATMs, became the dominant player in electronic funds transfers for credit unions last week with an agreement to acquire and operate the 5,500 ATMs in the nation's 7-Eleven convenience stores.

WASHINGTON - NCUA Chairman JoAnn Johnson told Congress last week that the ongoing margin squeeze among credit unions continues to fuel the sale of credit card portfolios.

SAN ANTONIO - Southwest Business Corporation (SWBC) has added a Reverse Mortgage Division.

EL PASO, Texas - The El Paso Affordable Housing CUSO, a collaborative of eight area credit unions, and Wells Fargo will be providing affordable mortgages to low- and moderate-income families under a new program launched by local development organizations.

VANCOUVER, Wash. - The tensions surrounding the attempted conversion of Columbia Credit Union here to a bank two years ago are apparently not settled, after a former board member at the credit union had her home vandalized with the letters "CCU" written on nearly every window.

WASHINGTON - Credit unions throughout the country are doing their parts to help make the vision of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial a reality.

A graduate student decides to open a share account at the campus credit union. He heads over to the CU, applies for membership, and deposits $100. He walks out the door. Our college student is completely satisfied.

PASADENA, Calif. - CUs may think the threat of hostile takeovers raised by Apple Valley, Minn.-based Wings Financial FCU's attempt to force a merger with Continental FCU died when NCUA nixed that maneuver, but Continental CEO Tom Glatt said that threat is still a real and present danger to the entire credit union community.

MINNEAPOLIS - Wolters Kluwer Financial Services announced the company is expanding its comprehensive suite of consumer education materials for the mortgage industry to include interest-only and payment option adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) education materials.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - According to NCUA data, CPM FCU has penetrated approximately 20% of its potential membership, despite the fact that FDIC data shows nearly 300 bank branches in its total market area.

JUNE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - With the beginning of hurricane season resting on many peoples' minds, organizations are recalling past mistakes and making preparations designed to deal with possible future disasters in better ways.

PASADENA, Calif. - The best-kept secret in the mortgage market just may be the fact that credit unions offer them.

LGEFCU Selects Digital Resolve

CHARLESTON, S.C. - According to NCUA data, CPM FCU has penetrated approximately 20% of its potential membership, despite the fact that FDIC data shows nearly 300 bank branches in its total market area.

The recent firing of CBS Radio "shock jock" Don Imus strikes to the heart of how bad behavior adversely affects business. As Tom Brokaw noted in the New York Times: "There has been an absence of civility in public discourse for some time now. The use of language across the racial spectrum, and across the political spectrum, and across the cultural spectrum, has been, in any way you want to describe it, debased to a certain degree." Can this "discourse," to which Mr. Brokaw refers, ever be good for business?

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.

WASHINGTON - NCUA Chairman JoAnn Johnson told Congress last week that the ongoing margin squeeze among credit unions continues to fuel the sale of credit card portfolios.

WALL STREET - Morgan Stanley announced it expects to complete the spin-off of Discover Financial Services, the nation's fourth-biggest credit-card network and the parent of PULSE EFT, on June 30 and shares will begin trading July 2.