SALT LAKE CITY – The 100% for Kids CU Education Foundation, said it awarded almost $16,000 in cash gifts to four local schools. The grants will go to fund the purchase of equipment and materials at three elementary and one junior high. The Foundation, funded completely by credit union contributions, has provided almost $4 million in grants to local schools since its founding four years ago.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A 61-year-old local man pleaded guilty last week to passing counterfeit checks on a number of credit unions and banks. In a classic kiting scheme, the man, William Allen, would deposit phony checks in accounts at one institution, then withdraw the funds from other institutions, and in some cases wire the money to Nigeria. Credit Union One was apparently his favored dupe, with Allen depositing 23 checks into various branches of the credit union, then withdrawing the funds, as much as $190,000, before the counterfeit nature of the checks were discovered.

ALBANY, N.Y. – IA Systems, which provides web-based lending products to credit union, said Friday it has partnered with Parsam Technologies to pilot a web-based lending system. The new system allows credit unions and banks to create new accounts directly from the loan origination process online, combining IA Systems’ loan platform with Parsam’s uMonitor accounting opening system. IA Systems’ core product is StreamLend Velocity, the web-based loan system.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Service CU, the state’s first billion-dollar credit union, said it has big plans for its 50th anniversary this year. Gov. John Lynch joined members and local dignitaries Saturday for the 50 annual meeting of the credit union, founded in 1957 at Pease Air Force Base. Now serving the entire state of New Hampshire and part of Massachusetts, Service CU plans on adding three new branches this year, to go with the four opened last year.

ARVADA, Colo. – Jeffco CU has agreed to purchase the CU Service Center shared branch here, one of the first deals of its kind. Under the terms of the transaction, the $140 million credit union will continue to make the facility available to the shared branch network. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

WALL STREET – Culminating in two years of stops and starts, Morgan Stanley reported Friday plans to spin-off its Discover operations, which includes the fourth-largest debit and credit card network. The deal comes just two years after Discover acquired PULSE, the electronic funds transfer network for 2,000 credit unions and an equal amount of banks, setting off conjecture about a Discover spin-off. Under the deal announced Friday, The spin-off will be conducted as a tax-free distribution of shares in the new company, to be known as Discover Financial Services, to Morgan Stanley shareholders. The spin-off comes the market for EFT companies is sizzling, with shares in MasterCard having tripled in value since last may’s IPO of the second largest financial network, and VISA USA is planning an IPO later this year. Discover has 50 million cardholders, putting it fourth behind Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. – A well-known financier who initiated the first raid of converted credit union, was charged in a civil suit last week with illegally trying to take over a mutual savings bank. Spencer Savings Bank charged in federal court that Lawrence Seidman is violating the Savings and Loan Holding Company, which prohibits outsiders from gaining control of a mutual savings bank. The action, filed in U.S. District Court for Northern New Jersey, claims Seidman has been soliciting other depositors in the mutual savings bank in a campaign for Spencer Savings board seats. The suit claims Seidman and a ‘wolf-pack’ of accomplices have tried to turn depositor/owners against the bank’s management in order to gain representation on the board, convert the bank to a stock company, then sell it to make a quick profit. Seidman is an active speculator in savings banks, engaging in several proxy contests for board seats and often agitates for the sale of the institution. It was Seidman’s acquisition of a large stake in Jade Financial Corp. upon its 1999 initial public offering–the first converted credit union to go public–that prompted a takeover of the institution, formerly known as IGA FCU. Seidman is also currently engaged in a proxy fight to gain three seats on the board and force the sale of Center Bancorp, in Union, N.J.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. – Shareholders of BUCS Financial Corp., once known as BUCS FCU, voted Friday to approve the acquisition of the former credit union by a Pennsylvania-based bank, the 10th converted credit union to fall prey to a takeover. Terms of the deal call for rapidly growing Community Banks, based in nearby Harrisburg, Pa., to pay $24 a share, or $23 million to acquire BUCs. Herbert Moltzan, the CEO of BUCs, who converted the credit union to bank in 1998, will earn almost $1.5 million in the deal. Earlier this month Community Bank agreed to acquire East Prospect Bank, a $58 million bank in East Prospect, Pa., giving it almost $3.5 billion in assets.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A ring of 10 alleged identity thieves was arrested here and charged with using credit card numbers believed stolen from TJX Cos., the parent of TJ Maxx, to buy more than $8 million worth of gift cards and electronic. The suspects used the stolen credit card data to manufacture phony credit cards with magnetic stripes containing the real account information at dozens of credit unions and banks to but expensive electronics at Wal-Marts and its affiliated Sam’s Clubs, police said. The suspects bought Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club gift cards totaling as much as $30,000 at a time, in $400 denominations, without raising any flags. The police’s $8 million loss estimate would make the case one of the largest identity thefts among a growing number of cards schemes. TJX, the Framingham, Mass.-based parent of TJ Maxx, Marshall’s and HomeGoods, reported the large-scale theft of its data in January, prompting dozens of credit unions and banks to recall, then reissue hundreds of thousands of cards. HarborOne CU, located in nearby Brockton, replaced well over 100,000 cards. Cards analyst said the case represents a scheme known as “white-carding,” where real account numbers are attached to phony or blank cards. These cards are typically used at self-check-out terminals and ATMs where users are not monitored closely.

SAN ANTONIO – Members of San Antonio FCU can get a glimpse of the NCAA Basketball Championship trophy this afternoon in the main lobby of the credit union–if ever so brief.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Hostile takeover or market forces at work. Last week we asked you what you thought Wings Financial FCU's unsolicited bid to merge with Continental FCU does–or doesn't–mean to the credit union movement as a whole and where credit unions are going from here. This week, we share your responses. Keep reading to find out what you and your peers thinks the future has in store for credit unions. Tell us what you think. Click on the "letters to the editor" link to send in your thoughts on these or other important issues credit unions are facing.Credit Unions are all about serving members. What makes up member service is in the eye of the beholder. No credit union should worry about a hostile takeover if they are providing to the members what the members want. If someone else can do a better job of providing to the members what they want, more power to them.Bernard Brixius, COOCentral Minnesota Federal Credit UnionI suppose this kind of activity could be legitimate but the Wings offer is certainly not. Neat if you can pull off a deal where you use the target credit union’s money to pay for votes and still have millions left over for your own coffers. A legitimate bid in this case would be north of 9 million dollars. But you do have to choke when 5 dollar members are being offered 200 bucks for a vote–who will say no? The money is just falling in their laps. Sorry but we should challenge the ethics of this kind of chicanery.If this offer were to force a merger it would simply be more of the "confiscation of earnings" we decry in conversion attempts and another blow to the credit union movement. NCUA should step in and make sure all the things that are being said are true and inclusive. Subjective statements "it's a $1,200 advantage" based on hypothetical suppositions should not be allowed. Figures lie and liars figure. A comparison of fees for services should be included. This is often overlooked but the 5300's appear to show much less reliance on the part of Continental. Translation: Wings members pay more for services. Additionally a "failure fee" of something like $100 a member should be imposed and refunded directly to the target credit union if the strategy does not work. Just my thoughts.Dennis Moriarity, CEOUNITY Credit Union, Warren, MI.I find the Wings/Continental merger saga fascinating. I think the Continental FCU board of directors had better have their accounting hats on because if they turn down this very public and apparently financially beneficial offer then I don't think that the class action suit (vs. the Continental Board on behalf of the Continental members) will be too far in the distant future. Has the “Carl Icahn Era” been introduced to the world of credit unions?Thomas J. Powers, Jr., CEOHudson River Teachers FCU, Cortlandt Manor, NYOne of the great myths of the cooperative system is that these institutions should not be run as real businesses. A widely held belief is that the so-called "cooperative spirit" should trump any decision that entails competitive behavior. But this attitude protects mediocrity. It's part of the problem with credit unions generally, and why so many of them disappear each year out of irrelevance. housands more are merely treading water.In Canada, where most successful credit unions have a community field of membership, many of them compete head-to-head with each other in towns and cities across the country, even though their primary competitors are the country's big banks (RBC, TD, Scotia, CIBC, and BMO). What's wrong with that if it produces greater benefits, in service and convenience, for their members. Why should there be a gentleman's agreement that prevents any credit union from being the best it can be?Yet some of the more prominent industry leaders in the United States have decried the direct overture by Wings Financial to Continental's members. Do they actually think the average consumer gives a hoot that their credit union is a good team player in the cooperative system if it means passing up profitable business opportunities in order not to step on anyone's toes?George E. Scott, PrincipalLevel Five Strategic Partners Inc.The Wings attempt to accomplish a hostile takeover will certainly lead to further division in the industry. It won't cause us to START looking over our shoulders...we are already doing that. This incident, coupled with the aggressive approach to facilitate industry consolidation, has us already distrusting large credit union motives, looking over our shoulders for the next merger move and preparing contingency plans. The division is only getting greater.We used to have one front–credit unions vs. the bankers. Now, we have three–credit union in-fighting surrounding mutual conversions, this new hostile takeover approach coupled with the aggressive and sometimes “scare-tactic” merger proposals, and our non-ending, banker front. Maybe the bankers can stop and just watch. We used to be able to focus on member service, industry growth and cooperative spirit, but now, we can hardly trust each others’ motives.I think a hostile takeover could force a credit union to 1) seek out a better offer with a friendly merger (who won't throw management and the board completely out) or 2) consider conversion to a mutual, where the laws to govern the fairness of a takeover already exist. After all, why would we want to be affiliated in the credit union industry and call ourselves a cooperative movement when such things occur.Bottom line, there are a number of us that won’t sit still and will have a contingency plan in place to ensure the hostile partner will not prevail–it won’t be worth their effort to merely drive us into the arms of a more friendly partner or an environment in which this is acceptable practice and has monetary implications on both sides.Sundie Seefried, CEO/PresidentEagle Legacy Credit UnionShiver, shiver. The thought of hostile takeovers in credit union land sends chills up and down my spine. Very few things can be considered further from the cooperative spirit than this.What were they thinking? (Or smoking?)Keep up the good work.Daryl Tanner, PresidentShare One, Inc.

McLEAN, Va. – Secondary mortgage market giant Freddie Mac, recovering from a huge accounting scandal, reported this morning its lost $480 million in its fiscal fourth quarter as a result of interest rate moves that hurt its business of guaranteeing loans. The fourth-quarter loss compares to a profit of $684 million for the same period in fiscal 2005. Still, the second-largest buyer of home mortgages reported a slight increase in annual earnings, to $2.2 billion, from $2.1 billion the year before. The company reported in 2005 that it has misstated earnings by $5 billion between 2000 and 2002, mostly by underreporting. The company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars since then improving its internal controls and reporting systems.

ATLANTA – The board of the Federal Home Loan bank of Atlanta set the bank’s first quarter dividend at 5.90%, the same as the previous two quarters, but up from the 5.49% paid in the first quarter last year. The Atlanta Bank will credit this dividend to the daily investment accounts of its 1,325 member institutions, including 135 credit unions, at the close of business on April 2, 2007.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – A former branch manager for Advantage One CU was charged with bank fraud and money laundering in a $362,000 embezzlement. Forty-four-year-old Robin Andersen, who managed the credit union’s Carroll branch, allegedly used the names and personal information of members to set up phony credit cards and loans. The scheme ran between November 2000 and October 2004. Andersen was charged with money laundering because of her efforts to hide the funds.

NEW YORK – Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said yesterday he plans to sue a California student loan provider, claiming the company is making illegal kickbacks to schools in exchange for business. The Attorney General sent a notice of intent to sue Education Finance Partners Inc., based in San Francisco. The notice, a precursor to a lawsuit, is the first legal action to come from a nationwide probe of the $85 billion student loan industry that Cuomo launched in February. The company said it was "surprised and dismayed" by Cuomo's announcement and is prepared to defend its business practices. Cuomo's office said EFP had arrangements with more than 60 colleges in which the schools were rewarded for sending students to EFP for their loans. The arrangements were structured to encourage schools to transfer as much business as possible to EFP. As an example, Cuomo's office said Boston University would get 0.25% of the net value of the loans made to its students by EFP if the total value reached more than $1 million. If the value of the loans reached more than $5 million, BU would get to keep 0.5% of the amount. If the loans reached more than $10 million, the school would reap a 0.75% reward, Cuomo's office said. Other schools that had similar agreements included Baylor University, Clemson University, Duquesne University, Drexel University, Fordham University, Long Island University, Pepperdine University and it's Graziado School of Business, St. John's University, Texas Christian University, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Mississippi. Cuomo’s office is investigating at least five other student loan companies, including SLM Corp.— commonly known as Sallie Mae; Nelnet Inc.; EduCap Inc.; the College Board; and CIT Group Inc.

IOWA CITY – Members of University of Iowa Community CU who organized the rare recall of a new credit union name, failed in their bid to gain a foothold on the credit union’s board at the annual meeting Wednesday night. A write-in candidate nominated from the floor received scant support at the annual meeting, so three long-time incumbents were reelected to the panel. The members had hoped to gain entry to the board after they succeeded in defeating an effort to change the credit union’s name to Optiva CU. The name-change candidate received 69 votes to 664, 653 and 685 votes polled by the long-time incumbents.

McLEAN, Va. – Long-term mortgages rates barely moved this week, holding steady for the second week in a row, according to Freddie Mac. The average for the 30-year, fixed-rate loan inched up to 6.16%, from 6.14% last week; while the average for the 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage crept up to 5.90%, from 5.88%. ARM rates also changed little, with the average for the five-year ARM rising 5.91%, from 5.90%; and the average for the one-year ARM dipping slightly to 5.40%, from 5.42%. “Mortgage rates were stable this week as the bond market took readings on producer prices and consumer prices in stride, Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in his weekly commentary.

RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees CU said yesterday it has begun retrofitting its 900 ATMs with voice guidance technology for its visually impaired members. The credit union said the text to speech upgrade began in February and should be completed in four months, at a rate of 10 to 15 ATMs a day. The voice guidance technology will provide headphones that will provide verbal instructions for the visually impaired. SECU’s 900 ATMs are the most operated by any credit union.

SAN ANTONIO – Members of San Antonio FCU can get a glimpse of the NCAA Basketball Championship trophy this afternoon in the main lobby of the credit union–if ever so brief. That’s NCAA, as in National Collegiate Athletic Association, not to be confused with NCUA. Members are invited to come by the credit union between 3 pm and 4:30 pm to see the trophy. The basketball-shaped Waterford crystal will be presented to the college basketball champions next week here where the NCAA’s annual tournament culminates. The 28-inch high trophy will remain on permanent display at the campus of the winning team.

EAGAN, Minn. – BSBSM FCU, the credit union for Blue Cross Blue Shield Minnesota, said it has changed its name to Bluestone FCU. The name was chosen to honor the value and long association with the state health care provider and to better reflect the expanded membership to include Behavioral Health Services, DeCare Dental, Healthways, Minnesota Institute of Public Health anf Prime Therapeutics. A special celebration to commemorate the new brand will be held in June, marking the credit union’s 70th birthday.