SAN ANTONIO — Security Service FCU said yesterday it has signed a $3 million contract with AT&T for upgrades to its telecommunications network.

TULSA, Okla. – A man who robbed Tulsa Municipal Employees FCU the day after holding up Community bank and Trust, was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years behind bars. Dwight Woodard, who was arrested hours after the credit union heist following a four-hour stand-off with police, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree robbery. Woodard entered the credit union on December 6 and handed the teller a note demanding cash and was given $1,000 in $100 bills. Some of the bills were found in his pocket after his arrest.

WASHINGTON – The House overwhelmingly approved a bill Monday to bar commercial firms like Wal-Mart Stores, from owning industrial loan companies, state chartered banks. But the bill is expected to run into major opposition in the Senate, where Bob Bennet, Senator from Utah, home of half the ILCs, has a prominent seat on the banking committee. The bill was introduced in the House to prevent retail giant Wal-Mart from owning a bank–like one competitor, Target Stores–but appears to have lost some of its impetus since Wal-Mart withdrew its ILC application. Still, key members of both parties hope to maintain the traditional barrier between banking and commerce, which has been in effect since the Great Depression. The bill would have no effect on any credit union applications for an ILC because it requires that an ILC applicant conduct at least 85% of its business in financial services. Two separate credit union applications for ILCs were withdrawn last year due to the rising controversy surrounding Wal-Mart.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Dynamic Card Solutions, provider of the CardWizard instant card issuer, said yesterday it has been certified as a PathWays Connector for the Summit Information Systems Spectrum core processing application. This will allow users of Summit’s system to use the instant card technology with the Spectrum core application. The PathWays Connector creates a two-way communication channel between the CardWizard software and the Summit Spectrum application.

CHANTILLY, Va. – Justice FCU said yesterday it is installing a hosted version of Fortent’s advanced anti-money laundering system. The system, delivered in partnership with IBM, provides a cheaper and faster implementation timetable than Fortent’s current system. Fortent is based in New York.

VANCOUVER, Wash. – The city council Monday approved the sale of two downtown buildings for $3.2 million to iQ CU, which plans to build a headquarters there. Officials of the $350 million credit union haven’t decided whether they will renovate or demolish the 47-year-old building, once the headquarters for First Independent Bank. One city councilor said he hopes the credit union will retain the ‘Vancouver U.S.A.’‘ sign on the Citizens Service Center building, along with the temperature and time gauges.

SAN ANTONIO – Security Service FCU said yesterday it has signed a $3 million contract with AT&T for upgrades to its telecommunications network. The three-year contract includes deployment of an Optical Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network system in San Antonio as an upgrade to the $4 billion credit union’s data network services. The OPT-E-MAN service is a switched Ethernet service that connects to local area networks within the same metropolitan area. It will increase network speeds by up to 400%. The contract also calls for AT&T to upgrade the credit union’s ATM network service to AT&T Virtual Private Network services. It will connect Security Service’s locations in Texas and Colorado that are not served by the OPT-E-MAN system, using Multiprotocol Label Switching technology to prioritize business-critical data traveling over the network.

ATLANTA – E-payments provider CheckFree Corp. announced yesterday it has agreed to acquire Boston-based Upstream Technologies, LLC, a provider of tools for investment managers and traders, for $28 million in cash. The deal is the third in three months for CheckFree, which acquired Carekker Corp. and is in the process of acquiring Corillian Corp. Upstream’s business will be integrated into CheckFree’s Investment Services Division, which provides portfolio management and client reporting services and a data network available for broker/dealers, money managers and investment consultants.

DENVER – Payments processor/EFT network First Data Corp. said yesterday it did not receive any other acquisition offers during its ‘Go Shop’ period and will be wed to private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Under the ‘Go Shop’ clause of April’s $34-a-share, $29 billion deal, First Data had 50 days to actively solicit other offers but none materialized, the company said yesterday. KKR, made famous by the story of its then-record $25 billion takeover of RJR Nabisco as ‘Barbarians at the Gate,’ has embarked on a frenzied takeover spree that has included more than $100 billion worth of deals in the past three months.

MILWAUKEE – Shareholders in Marshall & Ilsley Corp. will receive stock in Metavante, the banking companies processing and EFT operations under a spin-off detailed yesterday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the so-called sponsored spin-off, private equity fund Warburg Pincus LLC will acquire a 25% stake in the new public Metavante in exchange for a $625 million investment in Metavante. Metavante shares will be listed on the NYSE under the symbol ‘MV’. Separately, Frank Martire, the president of Metavante who will be CEO of the newly public company, reported he earned a quick $1.1 million last Friday by exercising 50,000 M&I options for $28.48 each, then selling the shares for $49.71 each.

PORTLAND, Ore. – ATM ISO TRM Corp., operator of the nation’s second largest fleet of cash machines, said yesterday losses grew for its 2006 fourth quarter pushing the one-time operator of 22,000 ATMs deeper in the red, to the tune of $120.1 million for fiscal 2006. The main cause for the losses was a $98.5 million third quarter loss, almost all of it do to impairment charges and the discontinuation of operations, as the company exited its once-core copier rental business. TRM, which provides 6,000 branded ATMs to the CO-OP Network, underwent a major restructuring last year, which included the sale of its copier businesses and of its Canadian, British and German ATM operations. Included in the restructuring was an outsourcing of ATM maintenance to NCR. TRM is just of several ATM ISOs reporting financial woes, with both Cardtronics, owner of Allpoint Network and operator of 25,000 ATMs, and Global Axcess, operator of 4,500 ATMs, also mired in red ink.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Alabama¹s credit unions have launched the latest in a $400,000 media campaign aimed at both creating a more positive political climate in the state for credit unions and at driving greater membership growth. The campaign, themed ‘Better Rates. Better Service. Better Value. Think Credit Union’ is being overseen by CU-Vote, a subsidiary of the Alabama CU League. The ads launched in February with radio spots in six major markets in the state. The campaign will now add billboards, lobby display materials and statement stuffers. The Alabama League said a recent poll found that 50% of non-credit union members have considered credit union membership but have not acted on it. ‘We want to highlight the benefits of credit union membership with a special emphasis on the savings credit union members realize as compared to their using other financial institutions,’ said Wes Emmons, head of CU-Vote.

ST PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed legislation making Minnesota the first state to adopt a law that shift the costs associated with credit card data breaches from financial institutions 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. at a store in Minneapolis. The data bill puts into state law the payment card industry data security standards that merchants are already required by contract to follow, but rarely do, according to Visa and MasterCard. The bill, drafted with input from CUNA Mutual Group, the insurer for credit unions’ losses, had broad support from the state’s credit unions and similar credit union-backed bills are making their way through the Texas and Connecticut legislatures, too. The Minnesota law will prohibit the storage of magnetic stripe data, PIN numbers, and the three-digit security code from the back of credit or debit cards subsequent to the completion of transactions. The law requires merchants that improperly store this data to reimburse financial institutions for any reasonable actions undertaken to protect consumers’ information. Recoverable costs include the cancellation or reissuance of cards, opening and closing of any accounts, fraud losses, and notification of cardholders. The law goes into effect Aug. 1

NEW YORK – A more than tripling in the share price for M&F Worldwide since announcement of its deal to take over John H. Harland & Co. has reaped huge windfalls for at least one M&F insider, who earned $15 million by exercising the remainder of his M&W options in the first three weeks of May. Taub, an M&F director who runs Mafco Worldwide, the holding company that controls M&F and is owned by corporate raider Ronald Perelman, exercise 266,900 options, then sold the shares, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Most of the options were exercised for as little as $2.85 a share, while M&F shares were soaring to a new high of $67.98–almost four times the $18.10 they were trading at on December 20, when M&F announced its $1.7 billion deal to acquire Harland. M&F, which acquired Clarke American in 2005, is combining the two leading check printers.

PONTIAC, Mich. – Affinity Group FCU will almost triple its assets to $100 million under a three-way merger approved by NCUA. The combination will add Crestwood Community FCU, a $30 million credit union in nearby Garden City, Mich., and Wy-South FCU, a $35 million credit union in Wyandotte, Mich. The resulting credit union, which will be known as Affinity Group FCU, will serve various groups in Oakland and Wayne counties.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Authorities have set a $22,500 reward for a violent robber who has hit seven area institutions since last October, including Great Northwest FCU, in nearby Long Beach, Wash. The assailant has been dubbed the ‘Pepper Spray Bandit’ because he locks employees and customers in a back room before leaving and has sprayed employees with pepper spray during at least one robbery. In the latest robbery, the bandit circle the Security State Bank on a bicycle waiting for customers to leave, before making his entrance, then made his getaway on the bike.

PHOENIX – Desert Schools FCU raised $52,000 in just six weeks from a Spring Change Drive that called on employees at its 59 branches to donate extra change from their paychecks The loose change will got to benefit the Children’s Miracle Network and Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Last month the $3 billion credit union raised $175,000 at its annual golf tournament for Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees CU announced a new forbearance program to help the growing mortgage crisis among its membership The credit union giant said it has agreed to waive late fees on first mortgage loans for 45 days and approve requests to extend monthly payments on qualified first mortgage loans for up to three months. The aim is to help members whose lives have been disrupted by untimely crises, like the loss of a job, death of a spouse, divorce or illness of a family member. SEC said it plans to introduce two new mortgage products next month that will help members struggling with predatory mortgages, like exploding ARMs, at other lenders.

LANCASTER, Pa. – A armed man dressed in a fluorescent green construction vest and hardhat held up the Belco Community CU here yesterday morning and forced employees into the vault, before making off with an undisclosed amount of cash. The employees made their way out of the vault and there were no injuries reported. The FBI was called into to hunt for the bandit.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Never in the past two decades have credit unions lived up their not-for-profit structure so much as they did in the first quarter–as the industry’s profitability plummeted to its lowest in many years. NCUA reported yesterday that net income plunged 7.4% in the first quarter as lending was flat, pushing return-on-average assets down to just 0.73. That’s down from 0.82% in the fourth quarter of 2006; 0.88% in the third quarter, and 0.81% for the first quarter last year. NCUA attributed the lower earnings to stagnant loan growth–just 0.2% in the first quarter-continued increase in cost-of-funds, the rates credit unions pay their members. Michael Schenk, senior economist at CUNA, had additional reasons, citing the continuation of the flat yield curve; as well as NCUA’s letter to credit unions last year downplaying the importance of profitability, saying a 1% ROA is no longer required to gain a CAMEL 1 rating. “There is some seasonality to it,” Schenk told The Credit Union Journal yesterday. “But some of it is a reflection of what the Agency did last year with its Letter to Federal Credit Unions on earnings.” NCUA said shares increased a strong 4.2% in the first quarter, pushing up assets by 3.4%; while membership increase by 0.5%.