Editor's note: the following are excerpts from Vancouver, Wash.-based iQ CU CEO Roger Michaelis' comment letter to NCUA on the disclosure of merger-related compensation arrangements.

If nothing else, a few weeks on the road have taught me this lesson: Las Vegas leads the nation in people wearing sunglasses at times when both the location (inside) and time (night) would not seem to require shades. And in other news...

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?

NEW BRITAIN, Ct. – Polam FCU, a Los Angeles-based credit union serving the Polish-American community, said last week it plans to build a new east coast office to serve the city’s large Polish-American population. The $50 million credit union acquired property across from its Broad St. branch where it plans to build a five-story office building. New Britain has the largest population of Polish immigrants in Connecticut and is often referred to as New Britski.

ROCHESTER, N.H. – Service CU, the state’s largest credit union, opened a new full-service branch inside the Wal-Mart store here, the fifth of seven branches planned for New Hampshire’s Wal-Mart’s. The branch here offers full service seven days a week, including deposits, loans and ATMs. The $1.1 billion credit union also operates full-service branches inside the Wal-Marts in Portsmouth, Newington, Salem and Manchester, and plans facilities in Hooksett and Hillsborough..

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Polish & Slavic FCU, the nation’s largest ethnic-based credit union, announced Friday it has donated $100,000 to help establish a chair of Polish studies at Columbia University. The Chair will promote Polish culture and studies, help Polish community schools improve academics, and assist with the administration of the Polish Language Regents exam. The $1.1 billion credit union is helping to raise funds for a $3 million endowment to create a Polish studies program at the Ivy League college.

ALBANY, N.Y. – SEFCU, formerly State Employees FCU, announced Friday it is opening two new branches, one in the Albany Housing Authority building, where it plans to offer financial education workshops, in conjunction with the city’s Albany CARES Program. The $1.5 billion credit union is also opening a branch inside the Price Chopper store in nearby Bethlehem, the credit union’s first retail store branch. SEFCU currently operates 21 branches throughout upstate New York.

NEW ALBANY, Ind. – NCUA announced Friday it had sold ailing Obelisk FCU to nearby Centra CU, in a purchase and assumption agreement. Obelisk was take over by NCUA last month for “previous service and operational weaknesses.” The $56 million credit union will not become a subsidiary of the $700 million Centra CU, based in Columbus, Ind.

NEW YORK – IN a ruling that will aid hundreds of credit unions and banks, a federal court on Friday barred Visa USA from charging a special fee when a big debit card issuers jumps to rival MasterCard. The ruling by the U.S. District Court here gives the go-ahead to 100 of the nation’s largest debit-card issuers to terminate their agreements with Visa. The ruling dates back to 2003 when Visa decided to charge a fee to any large financial institution that decided to issue debit cards under the MasterCard brand. MasterCard sued, saying the charge was anti-competitive. In its ruling the court also allowed any of the 100 issuers who signed agreements with Visa while the fee was in place to terminate those agreements.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Shares in funds processor eFunds, now known as EFD, rose almost 5% Friday after it was revealed that both Fiserv and Fidelity National Information Services submitted bids to buy the company for more than $1.5 billion. eFunds, which processes transactions for the credit union-owned CO-OP Network, put itself on the sales block last month. At least four bidders have submitted offers for eFunds, which is apparently moving to a second round of bidding. A deal for eFunds would be the fourth multi-billion-dollar transaction for payments processors so far this year, including the blockbuster $29 billion takeover of First Data Corp. by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., the $8 billion acquisition of Alliance Data by privaye equity fund The Blackstone Group, and the planned spin-off of Metavante Corp. by Marshall & Ilsley. Shares of eFunds have surged more than 25% since May 9 when the company said unidentified parties “expressed a desire to explore possible strategic alternatives.”

DALLAS – Convenience store chain 7-Eleven will almost triple its initial investment in its ATM fleet when it sells the 5,500 machines to Cardtronics later this month. The company paid $44 million just three years ago to acquire the ATMs from American Express, representing a 45% annualized return on the ATMs. AmEx had purchased the ATMs in 2000 from EDS Corp. The 7-Eleven machines–2,000 of them financial self-service Vcom kiosks–will play a vital role to credit unions, as they will be connected to both the CO-Financial Services ATM network, while the Vcom’s will be hooked into the Financial Service Centers Cooperative shared branching network. The deal will give Cardtronics control over 30,000 ATMs worldwide, 28,500 of them in the U.S., almost twice as many ATMs as the next largest provider, Bank of America. The 10-year deal with 7-Eleven will give Cardtronics the rights to own and operate the ATMs and to place new machines in any new 7-Eleven stores. Cardtronics also provides ATM services to hundreds of credit unions through a co-branding deal with Credit Union 24, and with the surcharge-free Allpoint network.

OMAHA – Two hedge funds with large stakes in TD Ameritrade said Friday they are not satisfied with the company’s timetable to sell itself and pushed for a quicker score. In a letter to the company disclosed Friday, Jana Partners and S.A.C. Capital Advisors, questioned the online broker’s ability to grow without a buyout and urged the company to enter negotiations, ideally with E-Trade Financial or Charles Schwab Corp. Ameritrade, which is 40% owned by Canadian bank giant Toronto Dominion Bank, was put in play last week after the company agreed to acquire Fiserv’s brokerage business and its $28 billion in retirement funds managed for $250 million. Ameritrade officials said last week they would be amenable to shopping the company, but the process won’t be a quick one.

NEW YORK – Credit Union Times, which has been losing ground to The Credit Union Journal, was sold again last week, for the second time in 18 months. The company’s parent, Wicks Business Information, was purchased by Summit Business Media LLC, which was organized by Andrew Goodenough, the former publisher of The Credit Union Journal. Wicks purchased The Credit Union Times in October 2005 from publisher and co-founder Mike Welch, who started the company about 16 years ago with Frank J. Diekmann, the current publisher of The Credit Union Journal, and Tim O’Hara, current publisher of CreditUnion Business. Summit is also the publisher of National Underwriter, the trade publication for insurance underwriters. Wicks also owns Treasury & Risk Management and Inside Counsel, among other trade publication titles.

PASADENA, Calif. – Wescom CU, which has been expanding its non-depository business, announced Friday it has acquired a chain of local check cashing stores, one of the first credit union deals of its kind. The eight check-cashing outlets, now operated under Area Check Cashing Centers, will now be outlets of the $4 billion credit union. The check cashing operations will be operated as a Wescon CUSO, allowing it to serve non-members of the credit union, and will provide check cashing, payday loans, money order sales, phone card sales and Western Union wire services. Darren Williams, president of the credit union giant, said the acquisition was undertaken as a way to increase outreach to the underserved. The deal comes a few weeks after Wescom expanded its mortgage business with the acquisition of CU Mortgage, and just months after the credit union began operations as a credit card bank, acquiring and managing credit card portfolios for other credit unions.

SEATTLE – Three key players in a comprehensive identity theft ring that stole more than $600,000 from area credit unions and banks over two years–including the chief ID forger–were sentenced to jail Friday, the result of a federal sting dubbed ‘Operation Kryptonite’. Rahsaan Moore, 25, confessed to creating bogus documents using personal data his co-conspirators swiped from a variety of institutions, including Seattle Metropolitan CU, Washington Mutual Bank and Virginia Mason Medical Center, which was used to steal funds from accounts at Seattle Metropolitan CU, Boeing Employees CU, Bank of America and WaMu. Moore created phony IDs and forged checks which were used to drain the funds from the four institutions. Moore was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $550,000 in restitution, while two accomplices, Anthony Purdmon, 23, wqas sentenced to 30 months; and April Tyson, 23, to 24 months. Six others have already pleaded guilty and were sentenced as part of the ring. Before being sentenced, Moore pleaded for leniency so he could help care for his four children. But the judge pointed out that Moore should have thought of his children when he was living lavishly off of the stolen funds. The judge also noted that by using information from hospital patients, Moore was stealing from the old and infirm.

RALEIGH, N.C. – In an effort to combat the growing number of home foreclosures, State Employees CU has launched two new mortgage products to enable subprime borrowers to refinance into affordable home loans. “Over the last few months, it has become virtually impossible to read a newspaper or financial trade publication without seeing an article addressing the issues of subprime mortgage lending,” said Phil Greer, senior vice president of SECU’s Loan Administration. “People who are trapped in these mortgages are facing outrageous interest rates and mortgage payments which are creating devastating financial hardships. Some SECU members opted for these mortgages with other lenders are now feeling the effects. We are committed to helping these members regain control of their finances through a better mortgage option.” The aim of the new products, the Five-Year ARM and All Savers Mortgage, is to help some of its members or eligible non-members wh are suffering ‘rate shock’ caused by the explosion of adjustable mortgages into dramatic rate increases. The Five Year Arm will provide up to 100% financing for as much as $400,000 for a term up to 20 years. The current 6.75% rate is only subject to change every five years, will not change more than 1.5% each time, and has a cap of 4.5% increase over the life of the loan. The All Savers Mortgage provides a fixed rate, currently 6.5%, plus an opportunity for those struggling with financial difficulties to start a savings account. The loan features 100% financing, a 15-year term, and once the loan is established an additional 10% will be financed to open a short-term certificate with a rate equal to that of the mortgage–6.5%.

This week Credit Union Journal delves into the state of the home equity loan market, asking a variety of credit union mortgage specialists how the downward spiral of property values has affected that market–and how their credit unions have reacted to these changes.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Converted credit union OmniAmerican Bank announced yesterday it has named a new president and CEO to succeed long-time chief Larry Duckworth, who died suddenly Feb. 8.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Twenty employees and members of Technology CU joined in last week to help built an affordable home with Habitat for Humanity in North San Jose for a local family. The home is part of the Silicon Valley Habitat for Humanity Murphy Avenue Project, which includes plans to construct six four-bedroom homes along Murphy Avenue by the end of 2007. One of the largest building projects for the Silicon Valley chapter, the development promises to give several deserving families an affordable house in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country. The Habitat effort was one of the community projects that have grown out of the credit union’s Community Spirit Day.

CALABASAS, Calif. – Stockholders of Countrywide Financial have filed a shareholders referendum aimed at having a say on the huge pay compensation paid to executives and directors, including CEO and co-founder Angelo Mozilo., one of the highest paid executives in the country. The nation’s biggest mortgage bank has filed proxy statements opposed to the move, one of 40 filed by shareholder activists around the country opposed to the exploding executive pay, saying the company has already taken steps to cut Mozilo’s salary and bonus by as much as a fourth this year. Meantime, Mozilo earned $2.2 million Monday by exercising 70,000 options for an average of $9.60 each, then selling the shares for more than $39 each, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The mortgage kingpin has earned more than $80 million so far this year, including more than $70 million through the exercise of options. Mozilo took home more than $120 million last year, and more than $350 million over the past three years.