KINGSPORT, Tenn. – Eastman CU said it has contributed $16,000 to Mountain Hope Good Shepherd Clinic to help renovate an unused portion of the Sevierville facility. The credit union gift will provide space for East Tennessee State University students to learn as part of a joint program between the University and the community. The partnership will provide training for doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

BOSTON – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston said Friday it will pay members a 6.75% dividend on their shares for the second quarter. The rate is the same paid in the first quarter. The dividends will be paid to the Bank’s 460 members, including 123 credit unions, on June 4.

BROCKTON, Mass. – Crescent CU said last week it is merging with the smaller Uniti CU in a marriage of two credit unions chartered to serve the local shoe manufacturing industry. After the merger, the sole branch of Uniti CU, a $50 million credit union founded in 1936 at Brotherhood CU, will become a branch of Crescent CU, a $310 million credit union. Crescent CU was chartered in 1919 also to serve employees of the local shoe industry.

LOWELL, Mass. – Paul Mayotte, the president and CEO of Jeanne D’Arc CU known as the ‘Maple Maestro’ for his offbeat culinary talents, announced he will retire from the $600 million credit union he has led the past 17 years. The 63-year-old Mayotte, who whipped up some of his favorite dishes slathered in maple syrup on cable television’s ‘Calling All Chefs,’ joined the credit union, one of the nation’s oldest, in 1983 as treasurer, then took over as CEO in 1990. The credit union was chartered in 1912 and serves two surrounding counties.

WASHINGTON – CUNA reported Friday that its political action committee raise $140,000 last month and spent $64,000, helping it to build its available cash to $235,000. An unusually busy period the month before had depleted the credit unions’ largest campaign PAC to just $160,000 at the end of March. CUNA had build up almost $600,000 in cash at the height of last year’s mid-term congressional elections. CUNA continued last month to cultivate co-sponsors of the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, with $1,000 contributions to recent CURIA signees: Bob Filner, D-Calif., Don Young, R-Alaska, Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md.,Joa Baca, R-Calif., Jon Porter, R-Nev., and Steve Kagan, D-Wis. The biggest contributions last month went to Sen. John Salazar, D-Colo. ($4,000), and to two leadership PACs, Rely on Your Beliefs PAC, for Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and MiLead PAC for Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.

VINELAND, N. J. – An 89-year-old member of Bay Atlantic FCU had her account drained by a live-in care giver, according to police. Luis Martinez, 41, who parlayed a job doing yard work into that of a live-in, was charged with forging checks to steal $17,000 from the unidentified man’s account. Detectives interviewed the victim who told them he hadn’t signed the checks. The caregiver was charged with forgery, uttering a forged document and theft by deception.

WASHINGTON – Both CUNA and NAFCU said last week they have no plans to oppose would-be Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke, who has traveled the country the past few years lobbying for repeal of the credit union tax exemption and against credit union legislation.“We look forward to working with Ms. Duke on credit union issues should she be confirmed,” said Fred Becker, president of NAFCU. “Our experience has been—as was clearly the case with Gov. [Mark] Olson—that once a nominee assumes the responsibility of a federal regulator, he or she puts aside industry politics and does what’s best for the entire financial services industry and the American consumer. We have no indications that Ms. Duke would take any different approach.” CUNA also said it would not oppose the anti-credit union candidate’s nomination to the Fed. Duke, former chairman of the American Bankers Association and now chief operating officer at TownBank in Virginia, testified several times before Congress against credit union efforts to ease member business loan, field of membership and CUSO restrictions, and spearheaded the ABA’s ‘Operation Credit Unions’ aimed at repeal of the tax exemption. As ABA Chair, Duke wrote every bank and savings association leader in the country to encourage them to join a letter-writing campaign against CURIA, the CU Regulatory Improvements Act. As one of seven Fed Governors, Duke could be called upon by Congress to give her opinion on credit union legislation, like the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, or even the tax exemption, if it reaches a debate on Capitol Hill. Duke’s nomination to the Fed, along with that of Larry Klane, president of global financial services at Capital One Financial Corp., must still be approved by the Senate.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Record numbers of Lafayette FCU members turned out for Saturday’s annual meeting to discuss whether opponents of the failed conversion to bank will get a foothold on the Lafayette board, but one prominent members was missing–President and CEO Michael Hearne. Hearne, who engineered the would-be conversion, has been put on indefinite leave and replaced by an interim CEO while NCUA investigates allegations of money laundering violations at the $335 million credit union, the more than 2,000 members who jammed into the Army-Navy Club were told. The huge crowd contrasted with a December special meeting to culminate the 90-day ballot on the conversion attended by fewer than 70 members. The ballot, which resulted in a narrow vote in favor of the switch to bank was subsequently withdrawn and the conversion abandoned when NCUA uncovered irregularities in the voting. Each of the candidates for the three board seats–including two representing opponents of the conversion–were allowed to address Saturday’s meeting, where many members criticized the credit union’s secretly adopted bylaw that disenfranchises thousands of overseas employees of US Agency for International Development, the credit union’s main sponsor group, by requiring in-person voting. But representatives of the conversion opponents, including a long-time USAID employee, were defeated in their bids for board seats, with two new credit union members appointed a few months ago to the board, winning by narrow margins.

PASADENA, Calif. – Wescom CU, which has been expanding its non-depository business, said Friday it has agreed to acquire CU West Mortgage, a CUSO owned by the California CU League, WesCorp FCU and several credit unions. The $3.7 billion credit union plans to merge the Rancho Cucamonga-based mortgage operations into CUSO Mortgage Inc., an Anaheim-based lender it acquired last year. The move comes amidst upheaval in the mortgage market, with the biggest mortgage bank for credit unions, PHH Corp., which acquired CUNA Mutual Mortgage, in the process of being acquired by a private equity fund. Wescom CU has also begun to acquire credit union credit card portfolios in an effort to build its own credit card bank for credit unions. CU West Mortgage was founded in 2003 by the California League and Orange County Teachers FCU. Wescom plans to retain all 11 CU West employees, including CEO Mark Hiatt, and relocate its operations to Anaheim. The deal will give Wescom customer relationships with 130 credit unions in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

DALLAS – Southwest Corporate FCU announced yesterday it has signed with VSoft Corp. to offer the company’s Merchant Capture and ATM Image Capture solutions to its 1,300 credit union members.

AUSTIN – Gas stations in this area are piloting a new payment system that allows customers to use their driver’s licenses as a debit card.

BLOOMFIELD HILL, Mich. – T&C FCU said yesterday it has contracted with Zix Corp. for email encryption services. As a Zix customer, T&C joins the ZixDirectory, the largest email encryption directory of protected addresses. Zix’s relationship with NCUA and with the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Services allows credit unions to communicate seamlessly with their regulators. Zix is based in Dallas.

MILWAUKEE – Metavante Corp. and Brink’s Inc. said yesterday they are teaming up to launch a system, called Sendpoint, that will provide remote image capture of deposits and payments received at 100 Brink’s cash vault around the country. Brink’s operates more than 100 cash vaults around the country that allows credit unions and banks to compete in new markets without expanding their branch networks. Brink’s now offers a suite of vault image solutions that enable check image capture and electronic presentment throughout its vault network.

DALLAS – Southwest Corporate FCU announced yesterday it has signed with VSoft Corp. to offer the company’s Merchant Capture and ATM Image Capture solutions to its 1,300 credit union members. The two solutions will supplement the $11 billion corporate’s Remote Deposit Services by allowing credit unions to capture check images at remote locations for clearing. The implementation will allow merchants to send checks remotely, eliminating the need for a trip to the credit union and speeding clearing.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NARFE Premier FCU announced it is converting its credit, signature and PIN debit accounts to PSCU Financial Services in August. The $120 million credit union, formerly known as U.S. Premier FCU, recently changed its name from NARFE Premier as a result of a strategic partnership with the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. Officials of the 15,000-member credit union will facilitate a broader marketing of its cards program to NARFE’s 400,000 members nationwide.

VANCOUVER, Wash.–The Vancouver City Council will hold a public meeting next week to review a bid by the iQ CU to buy two city-owned buildings downtown and turn them into its headquarters and a branch office. The city and the credit union already have an agreement in principal on the deal to purchase the property. The city said it chose iQ CU’s bid for the structures over other bids due to the purchase price and a willingness by the credit union to invest in structural upgrades to the facilities. It also favored iQ plans to incorporate Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design in its design and building standards.

McLEAN, Va. – Rates for 30-year mortgages rose this week, after holding steady most of the prior five weeks, according to Freddie Mac. The average for the 30-year, fixed-rate loan climbed to 6.21% this week, from 6.15% last week; while the average for the 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage moved to 5.92%, from 5.87%. ARM rates were mixed, with the average for the five-year ARM also rising, to 5.92%, from 5.89% last week; but the average for the one-year ARM remained unchanged at 5.48%. Mortgage rates have been relatively stable since the beginning of the year with the 30-year rate fluctuating in a narrow range that saw it go as high as 6.34% in early February and as low as 6.14% for the first two weeks in March. As long as core inflation continues to trend downward and economic growth remains sub-par, it is unlikely that we will see any big movement in mortgage rates, said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac.

NEW ORLEANS – Another ASI FCU member pleaded guilty to theft charges and agreed to pay back cash he illegally withdrew from ATMs in the days following Hurricane Katrina, when area power outages send the credit union’s systems offline. Tonia Browne, 25, agreed to repay $6,774 that he stole and to serve five years probation for pleading guilty to one count of bank larceny. Browne told authorities he withdrew the money even though he knew he only had a few hundred dollars in his account. As many as 10,000 ASI members took advantage of the post-storm computer glitch to overdraw their accounts. More than two dozen members have agreed to plead guilty and to repay the credit union. thousands of dollars.

AUSTIN, Texas – Gas stations in this area are piloting a new payment system that allows customers to use their driver’s licenses as a debit card. The National Payment Card links the magnetic stipe on a driver’s license directly to their credit union or bank accoun, allowing them to use the license to pay for gas. NPC started piloting the program in January and plans a broader roll-out next month. Although only 24 states issue licenses with magnetic stripes, NPC said it can provide e-payment functionality to a chain’s existing loyalty cards. Merchants benefit from the transaction because they bypass the Visa and MasterCard systems, thus saving on interchange fees.

DALLAS – PAYjr, the provider of online literacy programs for teenagers, said yesterday it has signed with Serverside Group to allow teens the chance to design their own prepaid cards, the PAYjr Visa Buxx Card. PAYjr offers a variety of teen financial literacy programs, including a debit card that allows parents to add or subtract money and to monitor teen spending. The new design-you-own card will be available through participating credit unions and banks this summer. PAYjr will be running a card design contest to promote the program, allowing teens to place an interactive mini version of their own design on blogs and MySpace pages. PAYjr is also negotiating with ‘parent friendly’ musical artists, sports teams and popular teen brands to provide teens with a wide variety of card designs to choose from.