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, 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.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Crowe Chizek and Co. LLC, one of the leading credit union auditors, has signed with RightPath Payments Inc. to market and sell the company's web-based payment system.

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.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - Michigan's credit unions are running two radio spots in response to an announcement that local Comerica Bank is moving its headquarters to Dallas.

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.

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.

The top 50 CU credit card lenders(by outstanding loans) 4Q 2006

Mortgage Woes Tied to NCUA's Takeover Of CU

Here's the kind of e-mail we all love to get from the IT department or our ISP or a vendor with which we do online business: "Effective immediately, you will need to create a new password."

MONTEREY, Calif. - To effectively manage a credit union's ability to have a social impact, expert John Weiser has these tips:

SULPHER, La. - The $7-million Firestone Lake Charles FCU has adopted a new slogan, "We're small enough to know you, big enough to serve you." The credit union has 2,000 members. (c) 2007 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

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HARTFORD, Conn. - State regulators are scheduled to meet with credit union executives this week to help clarify the filing requirements and calculation of the Unrelated Business Income Tax, better known as UBIT.

DENVER - NCUA began notifying members last week of New Horizons Community CU, a financially ailing $300-million credit union it took over a year ago, of a potential data breach of their personal financial information.

FORT WORTH, Texas - CUNA Mutual Group's brand new Customer Operations Center here is ready for its close-up-and so are its employees.

LINCOLN, Neb. - "Bank" is no longer a four-letter word in Nebraska.

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.

MIRAMAR, Fla. - Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union said it has now helped underwrite more than $200 million in business loans since launching its commercial lending program three years ago. The credit union's commercial underwriting and business loan servicing is offered through its CUSO, CU Business Capital LLC. CUBC provides participating credit unions with business deposit, cash management, and lending services and is now supporting 22 CUs from across the country.