LAKE MARY, Fla. – Harland Financial Solutions, recently acquired by M&F Worldwide, announced yesterday it will begin offering its credit union customers secure online back-up and recovery services through a partnership with EVault Inc. Using the protected hardware and environment of Harland Financial’s Enterprise Services Center and the EVault InfoStag disk-to-disk data protection software, financial institutions can securely back up and recover business-critical data online, while also maintaining compliance, thereby eliminating the need for tape backups. Safe and off-site, the encrypted data is available online at any time for immediate, user-initiated recovery. EVault is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seagate Technology. Harland Financial is a unit of John H. Harland Co., which was acquired last month by M&F Worldwide, the investment vehicle for corporate financier Ronald Perelman, for $1.7 billion.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Pennsylvania CU Association said its CU Foundation approved an $18,000 grant for web site development for six small credit unions serving McKean County: ARG Bradford FCU; Bradford Area FCU; Bradford Onized FCU; P.C. FCU; Petrowax FCU; and PIERCE FCU. The project is being conducted in conjunction with NCUA, which is providing additional funding through its technical assistance grants. Each credit union will have its own Web site terminal for enhanced marketing capability, from a general Web site. The project is expected to continue until September 30, 2009.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The Carolinas CU Foundation awarded a $10,082 grant to Eblen Charities to expand its Food for Thought program providing elementary school students with snacks. The program currently provides snacks in 600 classrooms in 58 schools in two counties, and will be expanded into four more counties with the credit union funding. In addition, the Western Chapter of the North Carolina CU League said it will raise additional money to help keep the bins stocked with snacks.

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Vandals spray-painted the letters CCU all over the outside of the house of former Columbia CU director Cathryn Chudy, who helped turn back a proposal to convert the $700 million credit union to a savings bank. Chudy and her sometime fiancé Lloyd Marbet was expelled from Columbia CU a year ago, after a three-year fight to defeat the conversion and open the credit union’s books. The vandals used white spray-paint to print the letters CCU on all of the windows on Chudy’s house sometime Friday night. Police said they are investigating the incident. A lawyer for Chudy said because she has an unlisted phone number, and given the nature of the vandalism, there are reasons to believe that the vandals may have obtained her home address from the credit union’s confidential records. Chudy and Marbet were among the organizers of Save Columbia CU, the first members group to successfully force the withdrawal of a credit union conversion. The group went on to gain control of the Columbia CU board, only to splinter over the continued efforts to open the credit union’s books, culminating in last year’s expulsion of Chudy, Marbet and two other members of the group from the credit union’s volunteer governance.

SALT LAKE CITY – Member Business Lending, the largest MBL CUSO in the country, announced yesterday it is expanding into Hawaii, where a new market is burgeoning for credit unions. “We’re taking this nationwide,” Bethanie Werner, market specialist for the CUSO, told The Credit Union Journal yesterday. MBL LLC, which was founded by Utah credit union giants Mountain America FCU and America First FCU, has grown to serve 22 credit unions in nine states, providing them with a full range of MBL services, including originations, risk analysis, auditing, processing and servicing. With $105 million in business loans being serviced, the CUSO has originated 40% of all credit union loans guaranteed under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 7a program, according to Werner. MBL LLC has big plans for the Hawaii market, where just 10 of the Island State’s 96 credit unions offer business loan services. Baron Nakamura, former vice president of member business services at Honolulu FCU, will be the Hawaii regional manager.

WASHINGTON – A representative of NAFCU is expected this morning to ask Congress to create a new data security regulatory scheme for merchants and others entities–like credit unions and banks--not already covered by federal banking laws. John Milazzo, president of Campus FCU and a NAFCU director, is expected to call on lawmakers during a hearing of the House Small Business Committee to enact legislation that will make those parties responsible for breaches in data security to pay the costs borne by their customers, including financial institutions, which have paid millions of dollars in recent years to reissue cards after account information has been leaked by third parties. “Merchants, retailers, data brokers or any other party that holds customer information should be held financially accountable if it is responsible for a data breach,” Milazzo is expected to say, according to an advance copy of his congressional testimony. Testifying with the NAFCU director will be representatives from Visa USA; the National Retail Federation; the Association for Competitive Technology and the Computer Technology Industry Association.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – TJX Companies, still coping with the aftermath of one of the biggest data security breaches ever, got a bill in the mail last week from one of its victims–a $590,000 invoice from HarborOne CU. “We sent them a bill,” Jim Blake, president of the $1.4 billion credit union who is pushing for credit unions to join the class action suit against the retailing giant. The costs borne by the credit union, according to the bill were about $90,000 to notify members of the threat to their accounts and to cancel, then reissue more than 9,000 credit/debit cards–and $500,000 for the harm the massive breach caused to the credit union’s reputation. “That’s the biggest effect, by far, that it’s had on us,” said Blake, of the potential threat to customers of the national chain’s TX Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and AJ Wright stores. More than 100 credit union have reported damages from the TJX breach, with hundreds of thousands of cards across the country replaced as a precaution. Bankers in three New England states, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine have filed suit to reclaim some of the costs, but so far credit unions have yet to sign on the purported class action. Officials at TJX did not return phone calls seeking comment.

OKLAHOMA CITY – An Internet dating scheme has broken the bank for one local credit union member–and his heart, as well. The love-struck victim met a potential mate online who told him she lived in Nigeria and wanted to fly to America to be with him. The courtship, however, was quickly terminated after he cashed more than $5,000 in purported Wal-Mart money orders she at OKC Thrift FCU, then send her the funds in Nigeria via Western Union to finance her flight. Love may have been blind but the authorities weren’t and they identified the money orders as counterfeit. Now the jilted member owes his credit union $5,100.

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 last week by local development organizations.

BILLINGS, Mont. – A mountain of pennies–or more accurately, several mounds of pennies–are growing at Avanta FCU branches, whose employees are trying to collect one million of the one-cent pieces for charity. So far, they have collected 702,181 pennies, or $7,021,81. To boost their penny drive, they are selling 500 raffle tickets for $10 each. The $110 million credit union hopes to donate the resulting collection of $10,000 to the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

ALBANY, N.Y. – SEFCU, formerly known as State Employees FCU, said it has awarded $12,000 in college scholarships to high school seniors in conjunction with the annual New York CU League Scholarship Program for credit union members. More than 1,300 students statewide, including more than 110 SEFCU members, competed for the honors. Three SEFCU members received $1,000 statewide scholarships, and nine others received SEFCU’s own ‘Smart Sense’ $1,000 awards.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Jack Henry & Associates, one of the few remaining independent credit union vendors, unveiled plans last night for an office campus here, east of U.S. 65. The plans shown to the Springfield City Council would include up to 550,000 square feet of office space on 36 acres of undeveloped land. There would also be greenery, walking trails and a lake. The company, which currently operates from a 40-acre campus in Monett, Mo., could employ as many as 500 people at the site, company officials said. The company has 3,400 employees at 40 offices across the nation, including 1,100 at its 40-acre campus in Monett.

HOPKINTON, Ma.. – Acquisitive EMC Corp., the provider of online security and authentication systems, said Monday it has acquired privately held Verid Inc., an online security provider based in Florida. Verid delivers knowledge-based authentication solutions and has clients that include some of the largest financial institutions, telecom providers and retailers. Verid’s knowledge-based authentication solution is used by several credit union vendors, including CashEdge and TriCypher. Terms of the transaction were not made public. Over the past two years EMC has transformed itself by branching out from its core data storage provider to a leader in online security, with acquisitions of Cyota and RSA Security.

CARMEL, Ind. – Securian Financial said yesterday its Allied Solutions unit has acquired as 25% stake in Integrity Systems, as part of a management buyout of the Phoenix-based provider of performance and sales enhancement strategies. The new company, Integrity Solutions, will build on the legacy Integrity’s founder Ron Willingham of development programs for sales and service professionals, by offering more comprehensive solutions for increasing sales, improving customer loyalty and retaining talented people. Integrity claims a base of more than 1,500 clients in 80 countries. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

ATLANTA – Electronic payments processor CheckFree Corp. announced it has completed its acquisition of Upstream Technologies LLC, the companies third corporate deal so far this year. Upstream is a Boston-based provider of advanced investment decision support and trade order management tools. The total cost of the deal was $28 million in cash. Earlier this year, CheckFree completed deals for Carreker Corp. and Corrillian Corp.

PORTLAND, Ore. – TRM Corp., operator of the nation’s second-largest fleet of ATMs and a part of the credit union-owned CO-OP Network, said last week it auditors had issued a ‘going concern’ opinion, questioning whether the financially troubled company is going to survive its current travails. The auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, referred to the company’s $120 million loss for 2006 and the company’s inability to meet lending covenants. TRM, was has yet to file its first quarter financials, is also contesting a delisting notice from the Nasdaq. The company’s shares slumped again yesterday by 6%, to close at $1.32. TRM operates more than 15,000 ATMs, 6,000 of which are cobranded for the CO-OP.

LIVERMORE, Calif. – 1st United Services CU announced yesterday it has signed with Gila Corp. to provide it with delinquent account collection services. Gila will handle the collection of all delinquent auto loans 10-45 days delinquent as well as visa and mortgage accounts 15-45 days delinquent for the $700 million credit union. Gila Corp. is based in Austin, Texas.

WALL STREET – Private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis & Co. said yesterday it plans to issue up to $24 billion in debt, including $8 billion of junk bonds--the largest junk bond offering ever–to finance its leveraged buyout of payments processor First Data Corp. The junk bond financing will include up to $5.5 billion in senior unsecured notes and up to $2.5 billion in senior subordinated notes, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Up to now, the biggest junk bond issuance ever was the $6.1 billion floated by KKR in its $25 billion takeover of R.J.R. Nabisco, portrayed in the popular book and move by the same name, Barbarians at the Gate. The financing will also include a $14 billion senior secured term loan, a $2 billion senior secured revolving credit facility, and $7.2 billion of equity. First Data agreed in April to be taken private by KKR for a total of $29 billion, one of the biggest LBOs ever.

BROCKTON, Mass. – In the midst of the state’s worst home foreclosure storm, HarborOne CU launched a project yesterday to help turn the area’s low-income homeowners and immigrants off predatory loans. One of the main functions of the credit union’s new Multi-Cultural Banking Center is to provide financial education and assistance to the core populations who are being kicked out of their homes in Brockton, where 1,756 foreclosures last year is the highest on record for this working class city of 100,000, while state foreclosures soar to new highs, according to Jim Blake, president of HarborOne, an a member of the state task force on foreclosures. HarborOne’s Banking Center, believed the first of its kind, will give multilingual courses on foreclosure counseling, homebuying and personal finance. Despite the flood of foreclosures around Brockton and the state, HarborOne has had none–in fact just three foreclosures in the last 10 years, according to Blake. That’s because the credit union doesn’t offer the kind of non-traditional adjustable-rate mortgages and other subprime loans that are making up most of the foreclosed mortgages, he asserted. Courses at the Banking Center, where instructors will be fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole, will try to explain these products and help wean borrowers from them. The courses will be held in the $1.4 billion credit union’s vacant old headquarters, which are currently be renovated into classrooms. Participants in a multi-week course will automatically be allowed to open a checking account or line of credit with the credit union, said Blake, who hopes to be able to create other financial products or services aimed at this underserved market. HarborOne, which has partnered with the National CU Foundation’s Real Solutions on the project, is looking for other partners, either among local social service agencies or credit union entities, or for possible grant sources for financing.

SAN FRANCISCO – The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco announced yesterday it had awarded almost $7 million, including almost $1 million to credit union, to help fund housing grants for low-income homebuyers. The funds were awarded through the FHLB’s Individual Development and Empowerment Account (IDEA) and Workforce Initiative Subsidy for Homeownership (WISH) programs. Each program provides up to $15,000 per household toward the purchase of a home, matching up to $3 for every dollar saved by the eligible homebuyer. The grant money can be used to pay downpayments or closing costs for loans taken out at participating credit unions and banks. Twenty-three institutions received IDEA grants, including: Arizona FCU ($100,000); Travis CU ($100,000); Meriwest CU ($60,000) and Santa Cruz Community FCU ($60,000). And 31 received WISH grants, including: Arizona FCU ($200,000); Meriwest CU ($200,000) Star One CU ($60,000); Travis CU ($60,000) and Yolo FCU ($60,000).