JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - When a member of JM Associates FCU remarked to a member service rep that his Visa card showed he was being double-billed for AOL access, the MSR did more than urge him to switch to Yahoo. Member Service Representative Ally Rice researched activity showing AOL had been charging the member's Visa card for $23.90 and $28.90 for 18 months. Rice also printed out copies of his Visa statements to show the charges. Several weeks later the member called to say AOL had refunded him $521. (c) 2007 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - One may be the loneliest number, but it is the key to success at Conservation Employees' CU.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - NCUA, which has been slow to embrace the move to more corporate transparency embodied in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, moved last week to pry open the internal records of credit unions to their members.

Tyndall FCU's program offering a limited number of 30-year, 3.99% APR mortgages for its members to buy a home (CUJ April 9) is an astonishingly bold move to serve moderate-income working class households.

Aimbridge Introduces CDs

The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tenn., ran a story about how Memphis Publishing Co. FCU changed its name to Agility Financial FCU, expanded its field of membership and is looking for a new headquarters, leaving its current HQ at The Commercial Appeal itself. "Our main source of members is this building," said Robert Arick, the CU's CFO, from his office on the first floor of The CA at 495 Union. "There's no growth here in employment. There's no expansion in the newspaper business." The credit union has started a direct mail campaign and is offering $200 Home Depot gift cards for members who open home equity lines of credit, said the story.

TYLER, Texas - A veteran of two decades of working in credit unions, including several of the nation's largest, has opened a strategic consultancy. Ted Thames, most recently with California's Technology Credit Union, has launched his new practice, Q10 Resources, where he says he will focus on "building synergistic affiliations with well-known industry vendors and consultants," such as Connections Online from the Cardwell Group.

Aimbridge Introduces CDs

ING Direct Launches Mutual Funds

PUT CAPITAL TO WORK

MADISON, Wis. - The CUNA Operations, Sales and Service Council has released two white papers. "Converting Indirect Members" outlines strategies to convince new members to use additional services and products. "Small Business Services from an Operations Perspective" examines the operational issues-such as outsourcing and training-that credit unions should consider prior to offering deposit and lending services to small businesses.

WASHINGTON - Credit union lobbyists are waiting anxiously for the return to work of Pennsylvania Democrat Paul Kanjorski from triple heart bypass surgery so they can add as many as two dozen new co-sponsors to the CU Regulatory Improvements Act that Kanjorski has championed.

WASHINGTON - For most credit unions what first comes to mind when thinking of funds being paid out by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) is the dividend check paid on the 1% deposit when the fund is performing well.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. - Credit unions held an 18% share of the auto loan market in 2006, down from an all-time high of 19.3% in 2005, according to a new study by CU Direct Lending (CUDL), the indirect lending company.

DENVER - First Data Corp., which has agreed to be taken over by private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., has completed the takeover of Wells Fargo's Instant Cash Network, a provider of ATM services for 500 financial institutions, a third of them credit unions.

ING Direct Launches Mutual Funds

WASHINGTON, D.C. - On this page are featured credit unions that have been identified, according to one set of criteria, as delivering superior value to their members.

CHATSWORTH, Calif. - The recent purchases of Autoland and AutoSeekers by Telesis Community Credit Union are the first steps toward a cooperative known as CU Vehicles, according to spokesmen for the new company.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Patriot FCU paid its 40,000 members a special membership dividend for the first quarter, totaling $500,000.

Credit unions today cannot afford to expect busy tellers, loan officers, administrative or clerical staff to individually or collectively provide security for our credit union offices. They do not have the time or the expertise to take on that responsibility as they did in the past.