WASHINGTON – CUNA focused its campaign finance activities on helping the two political parties to rebuild their campaign funds, depleted by the recently completed mid-term elections. CUNA made its annual $15,000 contribution, the maximum allowable, to the main campaign arms of both the Democratic and Republican parties, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and Republican National Committee, as well as the Republican Governors Association, a total of $105,000. In a nod to one of the most important lawmakers, from a credit union perspective, CUNA also contributed the maximum allowable $10,000 to New York Democrat Charles Rangel, new chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, a longstanding supporter of the credit union tax exemption. CUNA also made contributions last month to several leadership PACs, which congressional leaders use to fund campaign activities for themselves and their colleagues. Contributions went to: CHC/BOLD PAC, the Committee for Hispanic Causes, a new leadership PAC ($5,000); the New Democratic Coalition PAC ($5,000); the Blue Dog PAC a committee for moderate Democrats ($5,000); the House Conservatives Fund ($5,000); and the New Republican Majority Fund ($5,000).

CHICAGO – The state Treasurer’s office announced yesterday it will make a non-member deposit of $100,000 into 17 different low-income credit unions in the Chicago area. The 12-month deposits will earn a below market rate, 3.5%, instead of the going rate in the area of 5%, in an effort to increase the capacity of those credit unions, according to Scott Burnham, a spokesman for Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. “The Treasurer has been thinking about instituting a program that would assist some of these credit unions to provide some of the programs in need in these communities,” Burnham told The Credit Union Journal. Among the recipients is North Side Community FCU, which Giannoulias visited Monday to help kick-off a new loan to finance the U.S. citizenship process for immigrants. “Our investment in 17 low-income designated credit unions throughout Illinois will pump $1.7 million into the local economy of communiti4s that need it the most, while helping working families meet their needs responsible,” said Giannoulias. The state will require all of the participating credit unions to document how the funds were used. Other participants include: Ambraw FCU, Berean FCU, Canaan FCU, Community FCU, South Side Community FCU, St. Mark FCU, Life FCU, Shiloh Englewood FCU, Cosmopolitan FCU and Imperial FCU.

KENSINGTON, Md. – In an unusual peremptory challenge, the chairman of Lafayette FCU told members yesterday that a petition drive waged by members angry over the credit union’s ill-fated conversion to savings bank is riddled with falsehoods and inaccuracies and should be dismissed. The rare missive comes even before members have submitted their application calling for a vote on the recall of the board for its support of the failed bank bid. In a letter to members, Lafayette Chairman Arnold Rosenthal said the petition, which has collected more than 750 names, “is a maneuver being perpetrated by about one dozen individuals out of approximately 17,000 members.” Rosenthal claims that the $330 million credit union met all of the opponents request, including meeting with them and sharing access to “any and all documents that they requested.” He claims the petitioners refused repeated Invitations to meet and discuss their grievances and continued with “their sham petition.” He also insisted that many members signed the petition under false and misleading; and that non-member solicit petitions. The Lafayette Chairman called on members who believe they have been mislead into signing the petition to contact the credit union so they can challenge the validity of the petition. Scott Steins, one of the leaders of the petition drive, was incredulous. “He’s really reaching,” Steins told The Credit Union Journal. “It’s up to the members to make up their minds at a special meeting. That’s the whole purpose of calling a special meeting.” Steins said his group has collected the necessary signatures to force a special meeting under the credit union’s bylaws and they are preparing to submit to the credit union.

WASHINGTON – Disagreements between the two main credit union lobby groups, CUNA and NAFCU, have delayed progress on the impending regulatory relief bill, known as CURIA, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The groups had hoped to get the bill introduced before next week when 4,000 credit union executives and volunteers will visit Capitol Hill for their annual lobbying pilgrimage during CUNA’s Government Affairs Conference. But Congress is in recess until next Monday night, making it unlikely the bill will be introduced by then. The two trade groups have yet to agree on language that would ease the 10-year-old cap on member business loans. NAFCU notified congressional leaders it wants to see the cap eliminated completely. CUNA has said privately it also wants the cap eliminated, but believes raising it from the current 12.25% of assets to just 20%, or 25% is more politically palatable. Congressional staff is urging the two lobby groups to come to agreement on the cap in order to get the bill introduced. The bill is expected to be significantly narrowed down from last year’s version, and focus on four main provisions, including the business loan cap, a risk-based capital system for credit union, allowing all credit unions to expand into underserved areas, and allowing credit unions to retain their select groups after converting to community charters.

NEGAUNEE, Mich. – A local woman who pleaded guilty to stealing almost $45,000 from her employer, Superior Iron Range Community FCU, was spared jail because of her plans for restitution. Instead, a state court sentenced 36-year-old Janice Ackerman to 12 months probation and $1,000 in fines, while she works to repay the money she stole. Her attorney asked for a suspended sentence because she's paying back all the money and repaying the credit union for its internal investigation. Ackerman had faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – A paroled convict was arrested here Saturday after a passing motorist saw a dye pack–apparently inside a bag of cash just stolen from nearby Commerce Bank–explode outside the bank. Police said Gregory Doughty, 49, of Amityville, had gone on a robbery spree that included the Teachers FCU in Amityville on Feb. 2, since his June release prison, where he was serving time for a 1998 bank robbery. After Saturday’s hold-up, a passing motorist saw the red dye pack explode and called 911, then followed the suspect, who was on foot. The suspect identified as Doughty, fled into a nearby ally where he changed his clothes, then went to a nearby sub shop, where he was found by police a short while later. Police believe Doughty also robbed an Apple Savings Bank on Jan. 26, and the same Commerce Bank branch on Nov. 19, as well as a McDonald’s.

WASHINGTON – Edwin Swindler, a former economist with the Federal Reserve and at NCUA, died at his home in Falls Church, Va., Feb 9 at 87. Swindler served as an economist, specializing in banking and credit, for the Fed after serving in the Navy during World War Two. In 1964, he became director of research for the National Bureau of CUs, the forerunner to NCUA, and worked there until 1974. After retirement, Swindler worked for several years as a consultant and lobbyist.

PITTSBURGH – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh said fourth quarter earnings soared by 25% to $34.8 million, allowing it to raise its dividend for the first quarter of 2007. The Pittsburgh Bank declared a first quarter dividend of 5.83%, up from 5.25% for the previous quarter. For the full year, the Pittsburgh Bank reported a 13% rise in net income to $216.5 million, fueled mostly by rising short-term rates that boosted net interest income by 11% for the year.

LEOMINISTER, Mass. – Leominster CU received a $117,900 grant from the Workforce Training Fund, the state Department of Workforce Development announced Friday. The grant will help 118 employees at the credit union focus on team work and collaboration, leadership development, and sales and service, according to a press release. Also receiving workforce grants were: Jeanne D’Arc CU, which received $138,355 to have 125 employees trained in leadership and management and Greylock FCU also received a grant of $33,700 to provide technical training for eight of its employees.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Alabama CU League launched a new program yesterday to help cope with the growing threat of identity theft by offering the Identity Theft 911 service free to credit union members of its ACUL Card Services and CU Service Center networks. Each of the eligible 81 credit unions will have access to the company’s breach managers to help assess and control a data breach; identity theft resolution services to help members affected by a data breach; secure communications with members; and media interface to manage public relations after a breach has occurred. Up to know, Identity Theft 911 has focused its services on prevention and resolution for individual consumers, and not the institutional affects of a data breach.

QUINCY, Mass. – Shoppers throughout the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border are being warned that high-tech thieves may have compromised their bank or credit union accounts by breaking into the check-out line card readers at area Shop & Shop supermarkets and planting card skimmers. The company said that consumer account information, including personal identification codes and PINs for cards, was stolen from two stores, in Coventry and Cranston, R.I., and four other stores in Bristol, Providence and Warwick, R.I., and Seekonk, Mass., also had data apparently breached after the card readers were tampered with. As a result, several accounts were reported to be improperly accessed earlier this month. After determining that the card readers had been removed, tampered with, then reinstalled, Stop & Shop began bolting down the readers, the company said. The scheme was uncovered by the U.S. Secret Service. The data breach is the latest in a growing list of cards information thefts, and comes just a fe wweeks after another Massachusetts company, TJ Maxx, reported that accounts at hundreds of banks and credit unions may have been compromised by the theft of its customer information.

NEW YORK. – CU Businesss Capital LLC, a Florida-based business loan CUSO started by Eastern Financial Florida CU, said it is expanding into the New York market with a series of new business lending products. The CUSO’s Small Business Lending Group, will offer business loans, lines of credit, credit card origination, business deposit, ACH guidance, cash management and SBA lending for deals over $500,000. The new operation will initially focus on providing services for its 17 current customer credit unions, including Paragon FCU, in New Jersey; TEG FCU in New York; Freedom FCU in Philadelphia; Springfield Teachers CU in Massachusetts; Langley FCU in Virginia, as well as Jax FCU and Bay Gulf CU in Florida.

TAMPA, Fla. – The senior prom will go on at Chamberlain High, thanks to Suncoast Schools FCU–even after the class advisor was charged with looting the funds saved for the annual coming-of-age pageant. Florida’s largest credit union pledged Friday to replace the $9,701 police say was embezzled through a Suncoast Schools account by class advisor Cheryl Foster-Lawrentz; funds that hundreds of seniors helped raise by washing cars, picking up trash and serving refreshments during the school’s sporting events. The 32-year-old teacher was suspended last week after she was charged with grand theft and fraud in the case. She allegedly deposited 21 checks made out to Chamberlain High School into her personal credit union account between November 2005 and December 2006. Most of the money is gone, according to police. School officials began investigating Foster-Lawrentz, who has taught special education for the past 10 years and also served as senior advisor, after a tip from a suspicious credit union official.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it has awarded the National CU Foundation a $415,000 grant to fund pilot Individual Development Accounts programs at three pilot credit union organizations. The organizations: Option 1 CU, Syracuse Cooperative FCU and El Paso Affordable Housing CUSO, will provide volunteer income tax assistance and advise low-income families applying for Earned Income Tax Credits, which will be used to open savings accounts earmarked for mortgage down payments, the Foundation announced yesterday. Low-income members who commit to financial education and saving for a down payment will be selected for IDAs, which will receive $2 in matching funds for every $1 saved. The Foundation has committed to paying half of the matching funds and each credit union organization will pay the other half. The HHS grant was awarded under the agency’s Assets for Independence program.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The NCUA Board, which has been steadily expanding parameters for field of membership to include multiple counties encompassing millions of people sprawled across state lines, drew the line last week on community charters when it rejected a bid for a statewide charter.

DENVER - Bellco CU wanted to do right by its members, deciding to reward those with the greatest depth of relationship. The CU started using profitability analysis software to help make decisions about segmenting the membership and refining its rewards program.

Merrimack Adopts New Brand

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - A local businesswoman, her husband and mother were charged with a credit insurance fraud that took a couple of local credit unions and CUNA Mutual Group for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

PROVO, Utah - Members compliment and complain to Utah Community Credit Union (UCCU) here through an online feedback system-and call center representatives usually respond within two hours.

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