NORTH CANTON, Ohio – ATM maker Diebold Inc. said yesterday that costs to close down its France manufacturing plant pushed it into the red for the first quarter, to the tune of $5.9 million, or nine cents a share. That compares to net income of $12.7 million, or 18 cents a share, for the first quarter last year. First quarter restructuring charges included $21 million to close down the company’s plant on Cassis, France and move the production to a new plant in Budapest. First quarter revenues were almost flat, an 0.8% increase, to $628.4 million. Diebold said the new Budapest plant has manufactured 1,700 Opteva ATMs and is expected to manufacture as many as 10,000 for the year. The company is still reviewing the long-term prospects of its troubled voting machine operations.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA said yesterday that Health Savings Accounts qualify for deposit insurance coverage under the National CU Share Insurance Fund. In a new legal opinion letter issued to an HSA provider, HealthEquity Inc., of American Fork, Utah, NCUA explained that HSAs will be insured as long as the owner of the funds is a member of the credit union or otherwise eligible to maintain an account there, or as a revocable trust. HSAs are tax-deductible accounts in which taxpayers may deposit funds targeted for medical or other health purposes.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – The Massachusetts CU League is expected as soon as today to sign on to a lawsuit filed yesterday 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. James Blake, president of HarborOne CU and chairman of the Massachusetts League, who was burned in earlier breaches at BJ Wholesales and DSW Shoes, said he will bring a new claim into the civil litigation–claims for reimbursement for the damage done to his credit union’s reputation. “No one’s put a figure on it, but we’re going to,” Blake told The Credit Union Journal yesterday. Blake said his credit union’s reaction to protect members–the recall of cards–not only cost HarborOne more than $100,000 in the TJX case, but untold losses to its reputation. Like most credit unions, HarborOne routinely recalls cards that may have information stolen, even if there have been no incidents of fraud. But this approach, he lamented, serves to scare members and potential members and put his $1.4 billion credit union in a bad light publicly, as the average consumer does not know who is responsible for the repeated cards recalls. In a suit filed yesterday in federal court in Boston, the banker groups from Massachusetts, Maine and Connecticut claim damages from TXX, the parent of TX Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and several other chains, in the “tens of millions of dollars.” Dan Egan, president of the Massachusetts CU League said cards at as many as 60 credit unions throughout the three states he represents (New Hampshire and Rhode Island and Massachusetts), and countless others around the country accrued costs by notifying members and recalling and reissuing cards.

JACKSON, Miss. – Bond was set Monday at $250,000 for a Jackson man arrested in Ridgeland on Friday following a possible carjacking, kidnapping and armed robbery. Twenty-year-old Markeith Smith was arrested after fleeing an attempted robbery at the Members Exchange CU, where he allegedly had kidnapped a young member, then forced the member to go to the credit union and withdraw cash. However, the victim alerted a credit union employee of the scheme. An alleged accomplice has not be arrested.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Security Service FCU announced it has awarded a total of $15,000 in scholarships to 15 top high school students. The students lived in in Texas and Colorado. Students were recognized April 17 at an honorary luncheon at the Doubletree Airport Hotel.

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Columbia CU said yesterday it has acquired 1.8 acres in Battle Ground where it will build a new branch. The site is located across the street from the current branch inside a Fred Meyer store. The new site will house a stand-alone, full-service branch for the $780 million credit union.

BLACKSBURG, Va. – Both CUNA Mutual Group and the National CU Foundation said they have contributed $10,000 each to the Freedom First FCU/Virginia Tech Memorial Fund. The fund was established by the credit union to help support the recovery of students, faculty and the community from last week’s tragic shooting of 32 students on campus. The credit union has two branches on campus.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Three Rivers FCU announced Monday that it will be working with Kroger management to continue uninterrupted services to credit union members as Kroger takes possession of Scott’s Food & Pharmacy. Three Rivers operates branches in 10 of Scott’s 18 locations. Credit union management anticipates no change in operating locations or hours during the transition, according to a news release. The credit union, which has 68,000 members, sees growth opportunities coming from the Kroger acquisition of Scott’s.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Check-printer Deluxe Corp. said yesterday first quarter earnings rose more than 40% on lower expenses, even while revenues continued to erode. Deluxe posted net income of $35.2 million, or 68 cents a share, for the first quarter, up from $24.7 million, or 48 cents for the same period last year. First quarter results included a $3.8 million gain from the sale of the company’s industrial packaging product line. Deluxe reported revenue of $403.8 million, down nearly 2% from $411.4 million, a year earlier. Among its individual business segments, small business services fell to $231.8 million from $236.1 million, financial services fell to $113.5 million from $117 million and direct checks edged higher to $58.5 million from $58.3 million.

ATLANTA – Electronic bill payments provider CheckFree Corp. reported a 20% drop in earnings for its fiscal third quarter yesterday, as higher expenses ate into the company’s bottom line for the period. Net income for the third quarter was $30 million, or 33 cents a share, down from $37.7 million, or 40 cents a share, for the same period last year. Third quarter revenues were up less than 2% to $230.2 million, but third quarter expenses were up 4% to $185.6 million. For the first nine months of the year CheckFree reported a 1% decline in net income to $96.5 million, or $1.09 a share. Revenues for the first three quarters grew by 6% to $696 million. Thel slowdown in earnings comes as CheckFree is completing two acquisitions, of Carreker Corp. and Corillian Corp.

DENVER – Western Union, spun off from First Data Corp. last October, said yesterday that first quarter earnings declined 12%, compared to the first quarter last year when the company was part of First Data. First quarter earnings of $193.2 million, or 25 cents a share, were hindered by $15 million of expenses accrued as a public company. Revenues grew by 8% for the quarter to $1.13 billion, slower than expected, because ongoing challenges within the U.S. and Mexican markets that were affected by the ongoing immigration debate. Domestic transactions declined by 6% in the first quarter, as the immigration debate continued to take a toll.

DENVER – For Edward Labry III, the former chief executive at Concord EFS, the parent of Star Systems, the more than four years since he sold his business to First Data Corp. have been extremely profitable–earning him more than $1 million a month since then. Labry, now president of commercial services for First Data, earned $50 million by exercising First Data options over the past two years, including $13 million last year and $38 million in 2005, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s on top of more than $5 million in cash compensation. And during a five-week period last winter, Labry earned more than $10 million by exercising 850,000 options in Western Union he obtained from the spin-off of Western Union from First Data, at $8.42 a share. Labry who helped build Concord into the nation’s largest electronic funds transfer company, joined First Data when it acquired Concord EFS in April 2003. First Data had hoped to combine Star Systems with its NYCE EFT network, but was forced by antitrust regulators in the U.S. Justice Department to sell most of NYCE to Metavante. First Data has agreed to be acquired by private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $29 billion, one of the largest buyouts ever.

RESTON, Va. – Student loan giant Sallie Mae, in the process of being taken over for $25 billion, reported yesterday that continuing fluctuations in its huge hedging portfolio pushed first quarter earnings down 23% to $116 million, or 26 cents a share. Sallie Mae, which is regularly whip-sawed by the marking to market of its financial derivatives, reported a $357 million loss on its hedging in the quarter, up from $87 million of losses in last year’s first quarter. At the same time, servicing and securitization from its managing of the secondary market for student loans more than doubled to $252 million for the quarter, up from $99 million last year. Core earnings, the way the company likes to explain its operations, declined by 13% because of an almost tripling in loan loss reserved to $199 million. The charge-off ratio for the nation’s biggest student lender rose to 3.4% for the quarter, from just 1.3% in the same period last year. Sallie Mae, which has agreed to be acquired in a blockbuster $25 billion deal, reported its student loan portfolio grew 18% since last year’s first quarter to $150 billion, and the company originated $4.8 billion through its own brands in the quarter, a 35% increase compared to last year. The acquirers of the once-government sponsored enterprise are banking giants JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, two other leading players in the student loan market, and private equity funds J.C. Flowers and Friedman Fleischer & Lowe for $60 a share.

HIGHTSTOWN, N.J.– The New Jersey CU League said yesterday it has dismissed Robert. Walls, less than two years after the former Delaware CU League President was hired as CEO.Walls left the Delaware League in mid-2005 to fill a vacancy created by the termination of Thomas Shaughnessy, who would later plead guilty to embezzling nearly $300,000 from the New Jersey League. Shaugnessy had earlier been promoted to CEO to replace Russell Clark, the former NCUA executive who was also terminated by the New Jersey league in 2003. Christopher Zahne, the New Jersey League’s director of finance, has been named the acting CEO.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The state House yesterday passed a bill to restrict field of membership, in hopes of ending a decade-long fight between the bankers and credit unions. The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Governor Blunt, would limit community expansions to cities or contiguous counties, drastically reducing the multiple county FOMs granted by state regulators in recent years, some which spread across a half dozen counties consisting of well over a million people. Those credit unions that exceed the new limits will be allowed to retain their FOMs under the new law, scheduled to take effect August 28. However, the bankers failed to convince lawmakers to apply a Community Reinvestment Act for state chartered credit unions, part of the initial debate over the bill. The law is expected to settle ongoing litigation between the credit unions and banks, which claim that the vast community charters granted at least a dozen state chartered credit unions violates the 1998 FOM law carefully negotiated between the two antagonists.

ATLANTA – The recent run-up in tech stocks has benefitted back-office service provider S1 Corp., causing an underwhelming response to the company’s stock buyback. The company reported yesterday that less than 1% of its shares, just 15,955, were tendered at $5.75 each, far less than the 15% or $55 million worth the company had hoped for when the plan was announced March 12. But since then the shares have risen on a sea of takeover speculation from $5.53 to yesterday’s closing price of $6.67.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Bank of America’s acquisition of LaSalle Bank will add another 1,500 ATMs to the banking giant’s fleet of 17,200 machines. The LaSalle machines are located in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. BofA operates the largest bank-owned network and the second largest fleet of ATMs, behind only ISO Cardtronics’ 25,000 or so ATMs in the U.S. The second largest bank-owned fleet is the 8,500 machines operated by JP Morgan Chase. BofA has agreed to acquire Chicago-based LaSalle from ABN AMRO for $21 billion as part of the Dutch bank’s blockbuster takeover by Barclay’s Bank.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Fidelity National Information Services reported it paid former Certegy Inc. CEO Lee Kennedy almost $13 million last year, half of it a bonus for his role in the financial engineering of Fidelity National. Certegy was merged in 2005 into a conglomeration of back-office service providers owned by Fidelity National, then spun off into an independently traded company last fall under Kennedy’s leadership. Kennedy, now president and chief executive of Fidelity National Information earned a $692,308 salary; options worth $3.5 million; $1.5 million from a non-equity incentive plan, among other compensation. Kennedy’s compensation was only exceeded by William Foley, the man who engineered the combination-the-spin-off. Foley earned $16.2 million from Fidelity National Information, but as more than $200 million from the spin off from Fidelity National Title. Foley’s compensation last year included $157 million in gains on his options, which were accelerated because of the deal.

DALLAS – TNB Card Services said yesterday it has signed to Arizona credit unions to cards processing contracts. They are: Sun Country CU, a $40 million Phoenix credit union, and Pinal County FCU, a $65 million credit union also serving the Phoenix market. TNB is a unit of credit union-owned Town North Bank.

ATLANTA – Credit bureau Equifax Inx. reported yesterday that net income for its first quarter rose 10% to $69 million, or 54 cents a share. Revenue also rose a strong 8% to $405.1 million, based on stronger demand for consumer credit information abroad, and to a lesser extent, the U.S. Revenue surged by 14% in the company’s international business, but by less than 3% for the U.S. for consumer information.