SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Wells Fargo awarded $50,000 in funding, the second payment of a $100,000 commitment to a small business development center founded by Santa Cruz Community CU and two partners. The banking giant was attracted to the venture because of its unique approach in which each of the three participants, which also includes El Pajaro Community Development Corp. and the Central Coast Small Business Development Center, are offering the area’s small business owners services that compliment each other. In return for its financial support, Wells Fargo earns Community Reinvestment Act credits.

CALABASAS, Calif. – Countrywide Financial, know for its well-payed executives and directors, reported Friday that Sanford Kurland its former president and chief operating officer, took home more than $160 million last year–for just nine months work. Kurland, who was fired last September 7, realized $109 million on his outstanding options that were vested upon his termination, and another $42.5 million in compensation, according to the company’s annual proxy statement field with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That included: s salary of $1.5 million; option awards worth $15 million; and retirements benefits totaling $25.7 million. In addition, Kurland will be paid $15.75 million severance; a $6 million bonus, among other compensation. The 54-year-old Kurland, chief operating officer of Countrywide since 1988 and was named president in 2004, was widely seen as the heir apparent to co-founder and CEO Angelo Mozilo until the two had a falling out, leading to Kurland’s exit.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – A member of a gang that robbed Palisades FCU of $219,000 while wearing laboratory coats and surgical masks was convicted in federal court last week on charges of attempted bank robbery and conspiracy. Hurgenes Pignard and fur accomplices were part of a gang that planned or committed the credit union robbery and at several others. The gang modeled their robberies after a 2001 movie called ‘Sleepover Bandits,’ about robbers who would arrive at a bank employees house the night before the robbery, take them and their family hostage, and rob the bank the next day. The scheme worked in several robberies. On May 18, 2005, the robbers burst into the Pearl River credit union disguised in surgical outfits and armed with pellet guns, tied up 12 credit union employees and members with plastic ties, then made off with $219,700. The gang was captured a month later when their attempt to rob another bank went awry. At least four other gang members have been sentenced to prison.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve last week rejected requests by lawmakers to shorten check hold times, saying it is too soon after enactment of the Check 21 law to warrant changes to its funds availability or Reg CC, availability of funds and collection of checks. In a report to Congress on the implementation of Check 21, the 2003 law that gave electronic images the status of legal tender, the Fed said while banks and credit unions are slowly speeding funds availability “To date, there has not been sufficient improvement within the check-collection and check return system to warrant legislative or regulatory changes to any of the funds availability requirements in the (Electronic Funds Availability Act) and Regulation CC.” At stake is billions of dollars in late fees and interest, the so-called float, that credit unions and banks take advantage of while they are holding their customers’ checks. The Fed’s report comes as a group of Democratic lawmakers who took control of the House Financial Services Committee this Congress is urging the Central Bank to shorten check hold times so that consumers can also benefit by the shortened float facilitated by Check 21. But industry representatives say the implementation of Check 21; the construction of electronic check and image exchanges and their connection to the nation’s banks and credit unions, has not been adopted widely enough to warrant a shortening of the electronic funds availability requirements. In making its recommendation, the Fed studied the clearing period for checks under the new law, as well as the implementation of electronic deposits at ATMs and over the Internet. “While the use of Check 21 authority has recently begun to grow more rapidly within the interbank check-collection market, the use of substitute checks and electronic check images to collect and return checks still constitutes a minority (about 20%) of all paid checks and only a somewhat larger share (about 26%) of all interbank check collections,” said the Fed. “As a result, increased adoption of Check 21 authority has likely only somewhat improved check return times.”

IRVING, Texas – Your FCU said yesterday it has successfully installed Integrated Media Management’s TotaleChecks product with its core platform for its 17,000 members, helping the $150 million credit union make its check printing operation paperless. TotaleChecks is a server-based software that prints online and batch institution official checks on blank security stock paper. All transactions are generated on the financial institution's host system and then merged with the encrypted check and a digitized signature before being printed. The storage and management of preprinted checks, as well as the risks associated with storing negotiable documents, is eliminated. TotaleChecks has been installed at 144 credit unions nationwide.

McLEAN, Va. – Long-term mortgage rates barely budged this week, with the average for the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate loan dipping a single basis point to 6.16%, according to Freddie Mac. The average for the 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage also slipped slightly to 5.87% this week, from 5.89% last week. ARM rates also moved slightly lower, with the average for the five-year ARM dipping to 5.88%, from 5.92% last week; and the average for the one-year ARM slipping to 5.43%, from 5.45% last week. Recent economic data releases showing weaker existing home sales in March, coupled with lower consumer confidence in April, caused the market to pause and reevaluate the potential growth of the economy this year, said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac chief economist in a statement. This allowed all mortgage rates to decline slightly this week.”

DAYTON, Ohio – ATM manufacturer NCR Corp. reported a 17% decline in first quarter profits yesterday, based on continuing restructuring costs. The company, preparing to spin-off its Teradata data warehousing unit, said first quarter net income was $34 million, or 19 cents a share, which includes $46 million of costs for a manufacturing realignment and another $2 million for the spin-off of Teradata. First quarter revenues rose by 5% to $1.35 billion, with 2% of the benefit related to currency fluctuations. NCR said it has requested a favorable ruling from the Internal Revenue Service on the tax-free spin-off to shareholders of Teradata and expects to file public a prospectus on the spin-off some time in the second quarter.

NEW YORK – Efforts to sell the troubled Bisys Group have apparently been held up with plans to sell the company as a whole failing to bear fruit, and top managers resisting proposals to sell the company in pieces. After going through several setbacks last year, management of Bisys Group hired an investment bank to sell the company. Solicitations for bids went out last fall, when the company made it clear it wanted bids for the entire firm. Bisys, which provides back-office securities and insurance services for hundreds of banks and credit unions, reported a 36% decline in net income for its fiscal second quarter ended December 31, mostly as a result of its ongoing securities litigation. In October, Bisys agreed to pay shareholders $66 million to settle civil fraud claims over the misstatement of earnings, and in September the company agreed to pay $21 to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle fraud charges that it made illegal kickbacks to brokers that were recommending its mutual funds to customers.

NEW YORK – Corporate raider Ron Perelman boosted his stake in M&F Worldwide, the company that consumed Clarke American and John H. Harland check printers, to 39.6% this week. Perelman bought 200,000 M&F shares Wednesday at $60 each, then exercised options for another 175,000 shares Thursday at $7.62 each, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, Perelman’s wholly owned holding company, Macandrews and Forbes, now owns eight million M&F shares. M&F acquired Clarke American, the nation’s third largest check printer, in 2005, then followed it up with last month’s acquisition of Harland, the second largest check printer, creating the biggest producer of checks in the country.

PURCHASE, N.Y. – Last May’s hugely successful initial public offering for MasterCard Inc. paid off big for the company’s president and CEO, Robert Selander, who earned as much as $30 million for his efforts. Selander, 56, who joined the cards company in 1997, earned a salary of $900,000; $4.9 million from a non-equity incentive plan; $2.5 million on “other compensation” and stock and options that have appreciated in value to as much as $25 million since the almost tripling of MasterCard’s share price in the days since the IPO, according to the company’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. The cards company went public at $39 a share and MasterCard shares closed yesterday at $108.55. MasterCard’s IPO was so successful that both Visa USA and Morgan Stanley’s Discover unit are planing to go public later this year.

CALABASAS, Calif. – Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s leading mortgage lender, reported a 37% decline in first quarters earnings yesterday, based in continuing problems in its subprime operations. Countrywide said first quarter net income was $434 million, or 72 cents a share, down from $684 million, or $1.10 a share, for the same period last year. Pre-tax earnings from the company’s mortgage banking operations, the engine of recent earnings growth, plunged 82% to just $100 million for the first quarter, as the company booked declines in subprime lending and in investment banking activities related to its subprime portfolio. The mortgage giant also reported increased credit costs of $132 million due to rising delinquencies, deteriorating housing markets and increased loan loss reserves.

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - A suspect in the December 2003 armed robbery at Horizon CU was convicted in federal court after he was tied to the crime by DNA collected from a disguise his disposed as he made his getaway. Steven Howard, 37, used a fake bomb to frighten a teller into giving him money, police said. He wore a distinctive set of clothes and had bandages on his face. He abandoned the costume in a dumpster in the parking lot outside the credit union, where police officers found it. After identifying Howard as a possible suspect because he drove the same kind of car used by the robber, FBI agents compared Howard's DNA to DNA found on a baseball cap and bandages and got a match.

WOODLAND, Calif. – Yolo FCU said it has been awarded a federal grant to help it provide matching funds to help finance down payments and closing costs for first-time homebuyers. Low- and moderate-income homebuyers can apply for up to $15,000 in matching funds to purchase a home within the county. The three-to-one matching grants are available to residents who earn 80% or less than the county’s median-adjusted income. Homebuyers must have at least $5,000 on their own, then can become eligible for the $15,000 grants.

HOUSTON – Strunk & Associates LP., the provider of overdraft protection programs, said yesterday it has teamed with the CU Executives Society to market a rewards-based checking account product to credit unions. Reward Checking will provide a high interest rate checking account to credit union members in exchange for their use of the credit union’s online services and products. Roll-out of the product comes a week after NCUA gave its approval for rewards-based products and services. In return for earning the high interest rate, members must use a specified number of online services and products, which may include online banking, e-statements, direct deposit, online bill pay, or a combination of products.

LANSING, Mich. – A former lecturer at Michigan State University pleaded guilty yesterday to shooting his wife to death in the MSU FCU parking lot last October. Donald Holmes, 64, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and agreed to serve 25 years in prison. At a hearing yesterday, Holmes said he didn’t recall firing the shots that killed his wife of more than 40 years, 61-year-old Catherine Holmes, as she sat in her car. Holmes told the court he had lied about how much money they had in their joint account and arrived at the credit union to try to convince her to return home. After the shooting Holmes disappeared for four days and was convinced to give himself up by his son, who pleaded with his father through the media.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Fidelity National Information Services, spun-ff last fall from Fidelity National Title, reported yesterday that net income surged 51% for its first quarter to $59.5 million, or 30 cents a share, on strong revenue growth. Revenues for the provider of data processing and other back-office services to credit unions, climbed by 13% to $1.124 billion, for the first quarter. The company was created a year ago with the merger of Fidelity National Information, a conglomeration of six back-office service providers, with Certegy Inc., then the spin-off.

EL PASO, Texas – A man who allegedly failed in an attempt to rob a Wells Fargo branch Monday afternoon was arrested later that night and charged with robbing the First Light FCU a short while afterwards. The suspect was arrested shortly before midnight Monday at the Red Parrot strip club. The suspect made off from the credit union with an undisclosed amount of cash.

MINNEAPOLIS – Credit scorer Fair Isaac Corp. said yesterday that lower revenues pushed down net income by 21% to $21.4 million, or 37 cents a share, for its fiscal second quarter. Revenues for the creator of the ubiquitous FICO score fell 3.5% for the quarter to $201 million. Second quarter results this year included the $1.5 million pre-tax gain from the sale of the company’s mortgage business and an associated $1.9 million increase in tax expense. For the first six months of its fiscal year Fair Isaac reported a 4% drop in net income, to $52.7 million, or 89 cents a share, and a slight decline in revenues, to $409.2 million, from $410 million for the first two quarters last year.

BROOKFIELD, Wis. – Fiserv Inc., the leading provider of back-office services to credit unions, said yesterday that net income for its first quarter declined 2% to $113.6 million, due to higher expenses. Per share income actually increased by 3% because of the company’s $142 million stock buyback. Revenues continued to grow at a healthy pace, by 11% over last year’s first quarter. First quarter highlights included the addition of 55 clients to the company’s electronic funds transfer operations, to 2,700 clients; the addition of 52 clients to electronic bill pay services; a new check exchange agreement with bank of America, through Viewpointe Exchange; and the acquisition of NetEconomy, a provider of financial crime systems.

RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees CU announced yesterday it has donated $100,000 to the African-American CU Coalition to be contributed to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial project. The funds will go towards the memorial being built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in memory of the late civil rights leader. The project is scheduled for completion in 2008.