RESTON, Va. – The proposed $25 billion takeover of Sallie Mae could bring a princely pay–cal it lordly–for the architect of the student loan giant, a payout of as much as $300 million. Sallie Mae Chairman Albert Lord, the man who engineered the privatization of the former government sponsored enterprise into the dominant force in the student loan market, stands to earn as much as $160 million on the $60-a-share offer, a 46% premium on the shares; as well another $160 million when he exercises more than 7.3 million options, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lord’s handpicked successor as CEO, Thomas Fitzpatrick stands to earn almost as much, an estimated $275 million, or so. That includes the premium on his 976,690 Sallie Mae shares and 3.6 million options, as well as a $10 million change of control without termination payment. Fitzpatrick earned $40 million last year, including $23.4 million through the exercise of otions and $16.6 million in compensation.

NEW YORK – In an event that could prove more important than America’s transcontinental railroad hook-up, the two dominant national electronic check networks, Endpoint Exchange and SVPCO announced yesterday they have agreed to exchange electronic checks and images. The deal, which extends to 4,000 banks and credit unions and more than 10,000 endpoints, will provide financial institution participants with a new opportunity to streamline their check processing and accelerate adoption of electronic image exchange, given the status of legal tender under the 2003 law known as Check 21. Endpoint Exchange is a wholly owned subsidiary of Metavante, which is in the process of being spun off by Marshall & Ilsley banking company. SVPCO is a subsidiary of The Clearing House Payments Co., which is owned by JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Wachovia and about 20 other big banks. The two exchanges are not only competing for the new electronic check imaging, but for the vast volume of payments processing that the Federal Reserve is in the process of privatizing. The other major electronic clearing networks are Viewpoint Exchange, a network owned by seperately by JP Morgan and BofA, SunTrust Banks, U.S. Bancorp and IBM Corp., and the Fiserv Clearing Network.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Technology CU announced an initiative yesterday to help locate missing children. The $1.2 billion credit union is partnering with Vanished Children Alliance, a national group, to help disseminate information on missing children in the Bay Area. The credit union has agreed to rotate a photo of a missing child on its Internet banking log-on page. The photo will link to the VCA website where credit union members can find out more about the case, as well as a phone number to call if they have any information on the missing child.

MADISON, Wis. – CUNA Mutual Group, the largest manager of credit union funds, unveiled a new trading floor yesterday at its headquarters. The new facility provdies 14 trading desks, space for four analysts, a stock ticker and two plasma screen monitors for real-time market information. CUNA Mutual, which manages its own mutual fund family under the MEMBERs brand, is the largest manager of funds for credit union members, employees and credit unions themselves.

NEW ALBANY, Ind. – NCUA yesterday took under conservatorship Obelisk FCU, a $55 million credit union. The federal regulator would not give a reason for the takeover, but emphasized that service to the credit union’s 13,800 members will continue uninterrupted. Obelisk FCU reported high net worth of 9% at year-end 2006, but had low net income, just $120,000, and a low return-on-average assets of 0.22% for the year.

CHANTILLY, Va. – Online Resources Corp. said yesterday it is testing an expedited payments service that enables credit unions and banks to offer consumers and business customers same-day billing. The system is being test-piloted by Global CU in Spokane, which sees it as a cost-effective way to serve members, especially the defense credit union’s active military members, many of them based overseas.

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Sunmark FCU announced yesterday it has acquired a local insurance agency, Hallmark Services, which provides property and casualty coverage. The $340 million credit union will use the agency to expand the insurance business it started a year ago. Hallmark Services is located in nearby Colonie.

LONDON – Credit bureau Experian reported yesterday that sales climbed 12% over the past six months, since the company was spun off of GUS plc. In the America,s where the company makes more than half its sales, revenues rose by 12% during the period, although the unit’s performance was hurt by its LowerMyBills online loan brokerage, which was set back by woes in the subprime mortgage market. Experian said after the spin-off it plans to shop for acquisition targets, and bought five businesses in the past six months.

TUKWILA, Wash.-- Boeing Employees CU announced yesterday it has renewed and signed a five-year exclusive agreement with MasterCard Worldwide for its debit and credit cards. The $7 billion credit union known as BECU, has been a MasterCard issuers for 10 years. The 485,000-member credit union claims 325,000 card users.

WASHINGTON – Electronic bill payments gant CheckFree reported yesterday that it has submitted additional documents to antitrust regulators at the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission on its proposed takeover of Corillian Corp. The deal will join CheckFree’s industry-leading e-bill technology with Corillian’s, which provides electronic bill payments for hundreds of credit unions and banks. The companies expect the deal to close in the second quarter. CheckFree, which recently completed the $180 million takeover of Carekker, has agreed to acquire Corillian for $245 million.

MILWAUKEE – Marshall & Ilsley Corp. reported strong first quarter financial yesterday, weigh down only by $1.3 million in costs related to the planned spin-off of its Metavante unit. M&I reported a 25% surge in first quarter net income to $216.8 million, up from $173.1 million for the first quarter last year. Metavante has agreed to spin-off its back-office service provider Metavante to shareholders, then sell a 25% stake in Metavante to private equity fund Warburg Pincus for $625 million. Metavante represents a conglomeration of credit union service providers including the NYCE EFT network, Advanced Financial Solutions, NuEdge Systems, Response Data and Kirchman Corp., and is the owner of one of four competing electronic image/check networks, known as Endpoint Exchange.

DENVER – First Data made it beneficial for its CEO Henry ‘Ric’ Duques to end his brief retirement to come back and sell the company in one of the biggest leverage buyouts ever. Duques, who retired in 2003, only to be coaxed back to head the company two years later, exercised 4.1 million options last year to realize a whopping $96.2 million gain, according to the company’s annual proxy statement. Coupled with salary and bonuses and shares earned in the last fall’s spin-off of Western Union, the on–again, off-again First Data chief earned almost $100 million. And with First Data’s agreement to sell out to private equity fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. at a 26% premium, that brings the value of Duques’ 2006 haul to close to $130 million.

DENVER – First Data Corp. said yesterday it plans to use its First Data Merchant Services unit to provide loans to small businesses. The company said it has signed a preferred provider agreement with AdvanceMe to provide expedited small business loans. The deal calls for First Data Merchant to make AdvanceMe’s Merchant Cash Advance available as an alternative source of capital. First Data is the middle of a pronounced financial restructuring, with agreements to buy companies while it is being sold in one of the biggest leverage buyouts ever. The company announced a deal Monday to acquire FundsXpress, a week after completing the acquisition of Wells Fargo’s Instant Cash Services ATM network; and is in the process of being taken over by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $29 billion.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA ruled yesterday that Wings Financial FCU’s hostile takeover of Continental FCU is illegal and directed the $1.4 billion credit union to discontinue the bid. The federal regulator, which has been called on by Continental and the credit union establishment to bar the hostile attempt, ruled that Wings’ $200 offer to each Continental member amounts fo a pre-merger dividend, which is prohibited under the Federal CU Act. In addition, the promise of such a dividend by the continuing credit union–without the approval of the merging credit union–is not permitted, NCUA said. Continental FCU President Tom Glatt, who has been seeking NCUA’s assistance, immediately expressed his appreciation. “In its action, NCUA has removed a direct threat to the member-owners of Continental FCU, who very much oppose this blatant attempt to steal their credit union,” Glatt said in a prepared statement. Wings Financial, one of a handful of surviving airline credit unions (it formerly served Northwest Airlines), has been soliciting members of Continental FCU to support its takeover bid, offering them $200 each–a total of $5 million–from the excess Continental FCU capital if they can convince the Continental board to accept their takeover offer. The Continental board has rejected a merger offer from Wings on four different occasions. Wings Financial is soliciting the support of Continental FCU members on a petition urging the $180 million credit union to call a special meeting where members could vote on the Wings offer themselves. Representatives of Wings Financial were not immediately available for comment.

DALLAS – The National Clearing House settlements network announced yesterday it has agreed to merge with Payments Resource One, a regional payments association for Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and northern New Mexico. “PRO has a long-standing relationship with NCHA,” said Mike Litzau, executive vice president of Sooper CU and chairman of the PRO board. “We are convinced that the combined strengths of our two organizations will create a new entity that will better serve the aggregate membership.” NCHA provides check clearing, settlement and related services to 608 banks and credit unions and to 21 clearinghouses across the country.

NEW YORK – CashEdge said yesterday it has signed with Verid to implement the company’s authentication technology into its online account opening and funding systems, used by credit unions and banks. Verid’s Knowledge-based Authentication presents users with a series of personal questions based on deep background data derived from a variety of public information sources. The technology conducts sophisticated analytics to build a comprehensive knowledge profile and guides the user through an intuitive and interactive process until identity is confirmed. Verid’s newest innovation is IdentityEvent, a new capability that will spot suspicious identity activity and increase security in real-time, before and identity theft takes place.

DALLAS – TNB Card Services said yesterday it has purchased the credit card portfolios of five more credit unions in five states, and will be converting the cards at those credit unions to issuing agent programs. The credit union purchases were from: Central Florida Healthcare FCU, Plains Bell FCU, Wyandotte Community FCU, Arkansas Superior FCU and Richland FCU. That makes a total of 115 credit union portfolios acquired since TNB, a unit of credit union-owned Town North Bank, began buying them in 2002.

SEATTLE – Seattle Metropolitan CU said yesterday it has agreed to acquire Credit Union Northwest, a 70-year-old $30 million credit union also located in the city. The combined credit union will have $502 million in assets and serve 41,500 members with eight branches in greater Seattle. The merger is expected to be completed in early June.

ALBANY, Ga. – Directors and management of Heritage Bank of the South, once known as AGE FCU, were able to double their money by taking the former credit union public less than two years ago. The deal earned two former credit union volunteer directors, Chairman of the Board Antone Lehr and Vice Chairman Joseph Burger, $147,276 each last year, according to the bank’s annual proxy statement. That included: $57,000 in directors’ fees, $17,107 in restricted stock grants, $10,891 worth of stock options, $1,102 in ‘other’ compensation, and whopping $62,278 each in pension and deferred compensation for 66-year-old Lehr, a director since 1980, and the 70-year-old Burger, a director since 1987. The former credit union volunteers earned $57,000 for their board service in 2005, before the IPO. But the directors’ compensation pales compared to that paid Leonard Dorminey, president and CEO of the credit union convert, who earned $694, 802 last year—a $376,000 raise—from last year. Dorminey’s compensation last year included: a salary of $263,952; bonus of $65,988; stock grants of $82,769; options worth $52,592; pension and deferred compensation of $161,550 and all other compensation of $67,951. The three converted the credit union, chartered in 1955 as AGE FCU, to mutual savings bank in 2001, then brought it public in an initial public offering in June 2005.

NEW YORK– Skyline FCU moved its offices to a block from Penn Station, providing the first shared credit union branch in mid-town Manhattan. The new branch is located at 350 West 31st St. between 8th and 9th avenues. For the first time, credit union members can walk into a street level CU Service Center in the most densly populated city in America and conduct their credit union business. Skyline FCU participates in shared branching through UsNet.