MANCHESTER, N.H. - They were in town to learn strategies for future growth, but that had to wait. First had to come a very special evening of looking back.

Events

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. - Credit unions held on to an 18% share of the auto lending marketplace during 2006, with CU members paying lowest average monthly payments on new vehicles, according to a report from Credit Union Direct Corp. (CUDL).

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - NCUA reported last week it approved 29 mergers in March, including an unusual number of huge credit unions acquiring much smaller ones, five involving billion-dollar credit unions. That included: Eastern Financial Florida FCU ($2.3 billion) acquiring Omni Community FCU ($50 million); Landmark CU ($1 billion) acquiring Belle City CU ($4 million); Kinecta FCU ($3.5 billion) acquiring Santa Monica School Employees CU ($9 million) Mountain America FCU ($2.1 billion) acquiring S.P. Sparks Employees FCU ($24 million) and GTE FCU acquiring Louisiana Association of Educators FCU ($1.4 million).

HARTFORD, Conn. - Credit union representatives met here earlier this month with state regulators to get some guidance on the Unrelated Business Income Tax. More than a dozen of the state-chartered credit unions received guidance recently from the Internal Revenue Services which was discussed among the group (federal charters are not subject to UBIT).

MADISON, Wis. - CUNA Mutual Insurance Society (CMIS) policyholders have approved the merger between CMIS and CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Company, but an opposition group led by the union that has had a number of labor disputes with CUNA Mutual Group is still on the attack.

HAMILTON, ONTARIO - Police here smashed open a door to gain entry to a branch of First Ontario Credit Union after 70 employees who are on strike locked themselves inside and padlocked the door. The employees had announced they would not leave until the credit union returned to the bargaining table.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - Dynamic Card Solutions has been granted a U.S. patent for its instant card issuing service, known as CardWizard.

Rank Credit Union City State Loans ($000)

NEW YORK - CashEdge Inc. has been awarded a patent for 'Multiple Trust Modes for Handling Data,' technology that allows credit union and bank customers to the degree of how their user information is stored.

WASHINGTON - CUNA reported last week it made contributions to 58 different House members last month, nine of whom would subsequently sign on as co-sponsor of CURIA, the CU Regulatory Improvements Act.

MAY

Johnson Visits Local High School

SAN DIEGO - Dick Ensweiler, president of the Texas league, told a group of credit unions gathered here that he supports the position taken by NCUA in opposing the attempt by Wings Financial FCU to go straight to members of Continental FCU with a merger bid that included a $200 payment from CFCU's capital.

Security Service Federal Credit Union, named Michael Cubeta associate general council and elected to its board: Bob Egger, chairman; Allen Snyder, 1st vice chairman; Jim O'Farrell, 2nd vice chairman; Joe Coleman, treasurer; Pete McNamee, secretary; Mary Holub, Tim McCallum, Grover Jackson, Jim tattini, Max Giovannini and Bill Ballard.

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. - Credit Union Central Falls, the state's biggest credit union, has changed its name to Navigant CU.

AUSTIN, Texas - The ongoing acrimony between bankers' associations and credit unions did not prevent two bank representatives from speaking at the Texas CU League's annual meeting here. Steven Wise, president of State National Bank in Ft. Worth, led a popular educational session on commercial lending. Wise told the audience his girlfriend works for a credit union. Rodney McElrath, corporate security investigator for Texas State Bank, led a session on defeating fraud with teamwork.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. - The Massachusetts CU League was expected last week to sign on to a lawsuit filed by the bankers asking that TJX pay expenses for the hundreds of credit unions and banks harmed by last year's data breach at the nation's largest discount store chain.

SAN DIEGO - Dick Ensweiler poses this question to credit unions: "If I were to mystery shop your credit union and ask the front-line staff why I should join a credit union, what kind of answer would I get?"

Throughout 2007, the Credit Union Journal, in conjunction with ENCORE Card Services, are profiling the credit unions of each U.S. state and D.C. Rather than appear in alphabetical order, the states are being featured in the order they became states. For info: visit www.encore-ecs.coop.