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HARRISBURG, Penn. - The Pennsylvania Credit Union Association has unveiled a new website at www.pcua.coop.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - In his first visit to the U.S., Costa Rican Credit Union Association (FEDEAC R.L.) CEO Manuel Bolaños attended the annual meeting of the Alabama Credit Union League in Destin, Fla. The Alabama league has partnered with the Costa Rican trade group as part of the World Council of Credit Union's International Partnerships program.

CUs Cautioned About New Internet Threat

WASHINGTON - The House overwhelmingly approved a bill last week to bar commercial firms such as Wal-Mart from owning industrial loan companies and state-chartered banks. But the bill is expected to run into major opposition in the Senate, where Bob Bennett, Senator from Utah, which is home of half the ILCs, has a prominent seat on the banking committee.

WASHINGTON - It's been called credit unions' best-kept secret and its greatest differentiator, but do members-and more importantly, potential members-care?

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has signed legislation making Minnesota the first state to pass laws that shift the costs associated with credit card data breaches from financial institutions and to the retailers that disclosed consumer data. The Plastic Card Security Act, which had support from this state's credit unions, was introduced in early March and kept in the news by several data breaches since then, including a major loss of data by TJX Corp. subsidiary Marshall's at a store in Minneapolis.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Never in the past two decades have credit unions lived up to their not-for-profit structure so much as they did during the first quarter of 2007-as the industry's profitability plummeted to its lowest in many years.

BOSTON - A group of seven representatives of Azerbaijan's credit union movement spent nearly two weeks in New England visiting with the region's CUs. The group's visit was coordinated by UMassFive College FCU. In addition to visiting UMassFive College FCU, the Azerbaijan delegation also toured ValleyStone Credit Union, Pioneer Valley Postal FCU, Franklin First FCU, WEMELCO Credit Union, Harvard University Employees Credit Union, MIT FCU, Digital FCU, and the Massachusetts Credit Union League. In addition, the group traveled to Manchester, N.H. to visit America's Credit Union Museum and the first credit union in the U.S., St. Mary's Bank Credit Union, along with Bellwether Community Credit Union.

MADISON, Wis. - Three new white papers are available from the CUNA Councils. They include:

E-Mail Encryption Chosen

ALBANY, N.Y. - Susan Commanda, above, CEO of Hudson River Community Credit Union, told a joint hearing before the state legislature that there has never been a need by credit unions to engage in the kind of deceptive credit card practices exhibited by some issuers.

DUBLIN, Ireland - Legislation has been signed by Ireland's Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, that will allow the country's credit unions to extend long-term lending. The update to the Credit Union Act increases to 40% the percentage of a CU's loan portfolio that can have terms of five years or more (up from 20%) and also permits 15% of the portfolio to have terms of 10 years or more (up from 10%). A review group that included the Irish League of Credit Unions, the Credit Union Development Association, the Registrar of Credit Unions and chaired by the Department of Finance had recommended the change.

PASADENA, Calif. - Wescom Credit Union will acquire CU West Mortgage and merge it with CUSO Mortgage, which Wescom bought last year.

BAYTOWN, Texas - Having great success in attracting new members is not enough. In fact, even keeping those members won't cut it. Success requires loyalty from the members a credit union already has, according to several experts, who shared with the Credit Union Journal several strategies for doing just that.

Comment

In its latest barrage, the Wisconsin Bankers Association (WBA) is asking taxpayers to take a hard look at the "burden" credit unions' tax-exempt status puts on our state.

Practice may make perfect, but it's not perfection we're looking for. Instead, the Credit Union Journal is now calling for entries into our Third Annual Best Practices Awards program, which has developed into one of the most widely recognized forums for the sharing of practices worthy of emulation within the credit union community. It's all about ideas. From the Credit Union Journal's inception, readers have consistently indicated they are in search of new ideas and new ways of doing things at their credit unions-especially if it can be implemented at a very low cost. Peers have always been the best teachers, and the Journal's Best Practices issue has become something of a University of Cool Stuff.

We recently held an extended roundtable session and invited a dozen credit union executives to discuss the state of the industry. We sent out a pre-reading package, and then met for two days of in-depth debate and discussion.

PLANO, Texas — Shareholders of Viewpoint Bank on Tuesday approved a $30 million pot of stock to be awarded under the new bank's Equity Incentive Plan; then the former Community CU handed out almost $8 million worth of stock to 11 senior executives and directors, the largest pot ever awarded by a credit union-convert.