ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA ruled last week that a federal credit union may issue a line of credit to a law firm in which the CEO’s husband is a partner. In a new legal opinion issued Friday, NCUA told Bayou FCU, in Baton Rouge, La., the agency’s member business loan rule bars FCUs from making business loans to senior officers and their immediate family members, in order to avoid conflicts of interest. However, the law firm where the husband of the CEO, Rhonda Linzy, is a partner, is organized a s professional law corporation, which establishes it as a separate entity from its partners, thereby making it permissible to issue it a loan, NCUA said. In order to protect against a possible conflict, the CEO must not be involved in the decision to issue the line of credit or its terms and should not communicate with staff and officials about the law firm’s application

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Federal examiners have the legal right to all privileged and confidential discussions of federal credit union directors, including those conducted in executive session, NCUA ruled Friday. “An FCU must make minutes of all meetings of its board of directors available to NCUA examiners upon request,” the federal regulator said in a new legal opinion. That includes records covered by attorney-client privilege, which had been previously exempt from NCUA review because of a court’s potential citation as a waiver of that privilege. But a recent statutory change establishes that submission of any information to the federal or state regulator will not waive attorney-client privilege. The opinion was issued to the chairman of the board for Community Resource FCU, in Latham, N.Y., who questioned NCUA’s right to review minutes of executive session meetings.

ATLANTA – Subprime consumer finance company CompuCredit Corp. announced Friday it has acquired ACC Consumer Finance and the $195 million auto loan portfolio the San Diego company was servicing for Patelco CU. The Patelco loans made up the vast majority of ACC’s $275 million in auto finance recievables. ACC operates in 12 states with collection centers in San Diego and Denver. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

KANSAS CITY – CommunityAmerica CU has pledged to help rebuild local communities in Missouri and Kansas which were built up after World War Two, the nation’s so-called First Suburbs. The credit union is teaming up with Mid-America Regional Council's First Suburbs Coalition to offer fixed-rate home equity loans at low rates to renovate First Suburb homes. The loans of up to $30,000 will carry fixed rates as low as 6.99% APR, with terms of 10 years or less. The $1.3 billion credit union has pledged $2 million in capital for the first year of the program. More than half the homes in First Suburbs were built in the post-war era, and many of them are now out of date. Often, they have small closets, one-car garages, no master suite and too few bathrooms.

CHICAGO – Southside Community FCU said last week it has expanded its partnership with Marquette Bank to offer low-downpayment mortgages to low- and moderate-income households. In an unusual arrangement, the community development credit union will offer second mortgages on first mortgages already provided by the bank, enabling the borrower to avoid private mortgage insurance. The arrangement will save borrowers as much as $200 a month. Under the arrangement, the first mortgage offered by Marquette Bank up to 80% of loan-to-value is combined with the second mortgage offered by Southside Community FCU for the difference between the down payment and the first mortgage. This enables the burrower to avoid PMI.

ATLANTA – Credit bureau Equifax reported yesterday that fourth quarter earnings rose slightly, less than 1%, to $63.1 million, or 50 cents a share, compared to the fourth quarter last year. Fourth quarter results included a $6.4 million charge for severance expenses related to the company’s restructuring. Fourth quarter revenues rose 8% to $390 million. Fourth quarter highlights included the October acquisition of Austin-Terra, Inc., a provider of business-to-business data management services, part of the company’s strategy to diversify from its core credit reporting services for banks and credit unions. For the full year, the company earned $274.5 million, or $2.12 a share, up 11%, from $246.5 million, or $1.86 a share, in 2005. Revenue increased 7% for the year to $1.55 billion.

MOBILE, Ala. – Authorities are searching for a duo of ATM thieves who have used high-powered torches to break into at least 30 machines in six states in the southeast, stealing more than $1 million in cash. The bandits are seen on a surveillance video at Army Aviation Center FCU in Mobile using a sophisticated torch, believed to be a plasma torch, to open the cash machine and make off with the money in a matter of minutes. The two men are believed to be responsible for ATM break-ins in eight cities in Alabama, in Tampa and Miami; as well as cities in Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

ALBANY, N.Y. – Covera Card Solutions, a unit of the New York CU League, said it signed three credit union clients. First Source FCU, New Hartford, N.Y., and Niagara County’s FCU, Lockport, N.Y., have signed on as participants in Covera’s ATM network; and People’s Transport FCU, Camden, N.J., has signed for EFT processing. Covera is a division of CUC Services, the New York League’s service CUSO.

DALLAS – Entrust, the provider of digital security tokens to combat identity theft, reported a fourth quarter loss of $1.6 million, or three cents a share, compared to a profit of $3.4 million, or five cents a share, for the fourth quarter last year. Fourth quarter revenues rose 13% to $28 million. For the full year, Entrust reported a loss of $15.2 million, or 25 cents a share, compared to a profit of $6.4 million, or 10 cents a share, for 2005. Full year revenue declined 3% to $95.2 million.

RICHMOND, Va. – Cash carrier and security provider Brink’s Co., under attack by its two largest shareholders, reported an almost tripling in fourth quarter earnings yesterday, to $126.6 million, or $2.74 a share. Fourth quarter revenue was up 14% to $755.9 million, compared to the same period last year. Michael Dunn, CEO of Brink’s, attributed some of the fourth quarter surge to business constraints in its cash carrying business suffered in the previous year because of Hurricane Katrina and higher costs on its residential security business. For the full year, Brink’s reported an 11% increase in revenues, to $2.8 billion, and a tripling in net income to $587.2 million, or $11.75 a share, compared to fiscal 2005. Brinks has been fending off calls from Hedge Fund Pirate Capital, which holds an 8.5% stake in the company, and MMI Investments, which holds about 8.3%, to sell the company.

DENVER – Western Union, the world’s largest money transmitter spun off last year from First data Corp., said yesterday that net income for its fourth quarter declined by 7%, to $217.2 million, or 28 cents a share, mostly because of higher corporate overhead and interest costs related to the September spin-off. The company reported an increase of $9 million in fourth quarter expenses due to the spin-off. Still, the payments giant, which operates at more than 300,000 agents around the world, reported a 10% rise in revenues, to $1.17 billion for the fourth quarter. For the full year, revenues grew 12% to $4.47 billion, while net income declined 1% to $914 million, or $1.21 a share, from 2005. Financial results include those for Vigo International, the money transfer company that provides low-cost remittances for the World Council of CUs which Western Union acquired last year.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Insight Financial CU said yesterday its board declared a 1% bonus dividned on all share accounts and loans. Each member/owner in good standing received a 1 percent bonus dividend based on their 2006 dividend and their interest paid year-to-date. This is the eighth year Insight Financial has returned a bonus dividend payment to its members. The total payout to members will be $210,000. The 65-year-old credit union was formerly known as Bel-Tel CU.

McLEAN, Va. – Both long- and short-term mortgage rates rose again this week, to their highest in almost three months, according to Freddie Mac. The average for the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage increased to 6.34% this week, from 6.24% last week; and the average for the 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage moved to 6.06%, from 5.98%. ARM rates inched up, with the average for the one-year ARM rising to 5.54%, from 5.49% last week; and the average for the five-year ARM moving to 6.04%, from 6.00% last week. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac, attributed the uptick in rates to rosy economic indicators. “The strong 3.5% annualized growth in the economy over the final quarter of 2006 occurred while inflation moderated. Solid economic growth and tepid inflation contributed to the Fed's decision to leave the target short-term interest rate unchanged, said Nothaft. The Federal Reserve also referred to tentative signs of stabilization in the housing market in its Wednesday statement, he added

LONGVIEW, Wash. – Fibre FCU said it plans demolish one of the last surviving buildings constructed by Long-Bell Lumber Co., the company that founded this city, and build a new structure to house its new headquarters. The upper two floors of the new three-story, 41,000 square-foot building will house credit union operations, with the ground floor to be leased. The new offices will free up additional space for the credit union to provide services for members at its current location.

RISING SUN, Md. – Hundreds of credit union members and bank customers who dined at a local restaurant had their credit card information stolen when overseas thieves hacked into the restaurant’s credit card process, according to police. Dozens of members from APG FCU and Cecil County School Employees FCU, as well as customers of M&T Bank and SunTrust reported fraudulent purchases on their accounts of as much as $100,000, many of them from Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The only thing the victims had in common were they had all dined at Buck’s Restaurant here. Police said Buck’s was a victim and not involved in the crime, and they are investigating how the hackers were able to access the cards data.

LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. – United Nations FCU put its own imprint on this city’s skyline this week with the opening of its new 17-story headquarters, the tallest office tower to open in this suburb of Manhattan in 17 years. The $2.5 billion credit union will occupy the first seven floors of the $65 million building, the tallest opened in the neighborhood since Citigroup built its 50-story structure in 1989. UN FCU celebrated the opening with a $15,000 contribution to one of its neighbors, The Floating Hospital, which opened in 1866 to travel the five boroughs by waterway and recently opened its first land-based clinic nearby.

FRESNO, Calif. – A armed bandit believed to have robbed United Local CU the night before was shot dead by police yesterday morning after a wild chase through city streets that reached speeds up to 80 miles. The chase came to an end after the police laid spike strips in the road. The suspect then got out of the car and fired at police with a sawed-off shotgun and police returned fire, killing him. No police were hit and no one else was injured. The chase began around 3:30 am when the suspect was spotted near Riverpark Shopping center and wound through the northeast part of the city.

TOPEKA, Kan. – A former vice president at Kansas State FCU, in Manhattan, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay $154,000 in restitution for a fraud scheme. Stephan Johannes, 48, pleaded guilty to a single count of bank fraud. Prosecutors said an internal review of Johannes' loan accounts found numerous cases of customer loans being extended. They said when Johannes changed the due date of a loan, he would also use the bank's computer system to advance funds on the customer's loan.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – A former teller at West Branch Valley FCU was charged yesterday with stealing $30,000 from the cash drawers of the credit union. Authorities charged Rhonda Cranmer, 39, with stealing large sums of cash from the credit union, where she served as head teller. Credit union officials became suspicious and notified police.

LENEXA, Kan. – CommunityAmerica CU announced yesterday it paid its members an extraordinary dividend of more than $1 million. The amount of each member’s ‘Owner Participation Dividend’ was based on each member’s use of the credit union’s products and services. The $1.5 billion credit union has paid out more than $10 million to members in bonus dividends over the past 11 years.