ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA reported that it granted several large underserved expansions, including a request from Power FCU, in Syracuse, N.Y., to add more than 420,000 residents in the nearby city of Buffalo, and in Oswego County. NCUA also approved a request from Chartway FCU, the Virginia Beach-based credit union giant that has been expanding its market through the underserved program, to serve 175,000 people in southern Virginia. The $1.1 billion credit union has expanded into underserved communities in recent years serving swaths of Houston, Tampa, Richmond, Va., Providence, R.I. and parts of North Carolina. NCUA also approved a request from GPO FCU, in Ava, N.Y., to serve 145,000 residents of several surrounding communities, designated as underserved areas.

LONG BEACH, Wash. – A masked man threatened a female employee then shot pepper-spray at three employees before escaping with almost $7,000 yesterday from the Great Northwest FCU branch here. The robber burst into the credit union around 11 am and grabbed a female employee who he used as a hostage, to demand two other employees behind the teller counter. He then grabbed cash and forced the three employees into a bathroom where he pepper-sprayed them, and fled. The trio escaped within minutes and called police.

WALL STREET – When Citizens Community Bancorp, known until January 2002 as Citizens Community FCU, issued $52 million in stock in October to pay for its 2005 acquisition of Community Plus Savings Bank, another ex-credit union, investment bank Keefe Bruyette & Woods earned $656,000 in underwriting fees for the transaction. It was the second-step in the two-step conversion to public company for the ex-credit union, representing another chance at fat investment banking fees for KBF, which earned $560,000 when it underwrote Citizens’ initial public offering, KBF, which just went public itself in an October IPO, has been the largest beneficiary of credit union conversions, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show. The Wall Street bank has earned more than $6 million in underwriting fees from the conversions of former credit unions to investor-owned banks. That goes all the way back to 1999 when KBF took IGA Bank (IGA FCU) public, the first credit union convert to test the capital markets, which culminated in the takeover of the former credit union less than two years later. Since then KBF has taken many of the converted credit unions public and earned healthy fees doing it, including $1.8 million for Rainier Pacific Bank (Rainier Pacific CU); $1.3 million for First Pacific Trust Bank (First Pacific FCU); $460,000 for Heritage Bank of the South (AGE FCU) and $1.2 million for ViewPoint Bank (Community CU) just two months ago. Other investment banks have earned lucrative fees for underwriting public offerings for former credit unions, including the $1.4 million earne din 2005 by Friedman Billing Ramsay for taking Atlantic Coast Bank (Atlantic Coast FCU) public, and Sandler O’Neil & Partners LP, which earned $500,000 for underwriting the 2003 IPO for Synergy Financial Group (Synergy FCU).

KENSINGTON, Md. – Members of Lafayette FCU have filed complaints with NCUA asking the federal regulator not to certify a ballot converting the credit union to mutual savings bank. A letter signed by seven Lafayette members claims that the credit union’s board “tainted ballots through unauthorized collection practices,” violated credit union bylaws and made statements during the 90-day balloting that are misleading, inaccurate and incomplete. The members charge that certain statements by the directors “were presented with the intent of misleading members into voting for the conversion who otherwise would have voted against the conversion.” “We’re hoping that they’ll (NCUA) look into the actual voting procedures,” Amber Brooks, one of the members signing the letter, told The Credit Union Journal yesterday. Meantime, none of the members has been able to find out the actual vote count on the conversion, which is believed to be the closest yet on a credit union conversion to bank, and the credit union is refusing to disclose the tally. The close vote means that any impropriety detected by NCUA could reverse the result.

CALABASAS, Calif. – Countrywide Financial Corp. reported yesterday that co-founder and current CEO Angelo Mozilo stands to earn as much as $35 million a year by delaying his planned retirement. That includes a $1.9 million base salary, up to $10 million each in bonuses, equity based awards and a one-time restricted stock grant, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If he chooses to retire as CEO, the 68-year-old Mozilo will continue on at a pay of more than $550,000 as chairman of the Countrywide board, one of the highest paid in the country. Members of the Countrywide board were paid as much as $400,000 last year, and the panel includes such well-known figures as Kathleen Brown, former treasurer for the state of California ($276,836); Henry Cisneros, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ($297,336); Robert Parry, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco ($320,170); and Oscar Robertson, a member of the professional basketball hall of fame ($299,586). Mozilo, who built Countrywide to be the biggest mortgage bank in the world, one of the best paid executives in a publicly owned company, and earned $150 million last year–most of it in options exercised–and could earn as much as $100 million this year.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – Motorola Employees CU said yesterday it has signed with The Edcomm Group to implement the company’s online employee training program. The $400 million credit union, which already contracted for Edcomm’s Compliance Coach, has added its Switch for Compliance Excellence Program. The program helps credit unions and banks to easily switch from a different compliance vendor, free of charge.

CORNING, N.Y. – Corning CU said it has promoted Gary Grinnell, its president and chief operating officer, to the post of CEO. Grinnell will succeed Anne Crowley, who is retiring and will continue on as a consultant. Grinnell has been with the $1 billion credit union since 1997, serving in the credit union’s senior management team since 1999.

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Children residents at the Palmer House received food and gifts from members of Statewide FCU this week. The members’ gifts, amounting to about $2,000, came from the credit union’s program which allows members to skip a loan payment in exchange for a gift certificate of $20 or more. The credit union also paid to stock the Palmer Home’s pantry with holiday foods.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Arrowhead CU said it is partnering with the Inland Empire African American Chamber of Commerce in a project aimed at strengthening local black-owned businesses. The partnership will include a direct $10,000 payment to the chamber and an agreement to establish $25 youth savings accounts at the credit union with each new chamber membership. The Chamber, which was founded in 1990, will use some of the funds provided by the credit union to play a greater role in connecting area youth to employers and leadership programs. Other provisions of the partnership include joint advertising on Web sites and promotional materials, credit union sponsorship of chamber events and collaboration on future business promotion projects.

NEW YORK -- Operators of tens of thousands of off-premise ATMs are facing a deadline this week to upgrade their equipment with mandated security protections or risk having them turned off by the EFT networks that switch their transactions. Visa USA has given ATM operators until December 31 to comply with the industry's Triple Data Encryption Standard, known as Triple DES. The standard calls for operators to encrypt keyboards and communication lines of older ATMs to make them Triple DES compliant. Most ATMs manufactured since 2003 are compliant with the standard. Previous Triple DES compliance deadlines have been set back, making some wonder how strictly the networks will force compliance this time. Because of the surge to replace old ATMs with machines that are Triple DES compliant, there is a shortage of new ATM hardware, leading some in the industry to believe that Visa and MasterCard, which own the Plus and Cirrus ATM networks, respectively, will grant another extension until March.

ORLANDO, Fla. – CFE FCU announced yesterday a new partnership with The City of Life Foundation to offer savings accounts for children in foster care by waiving the requirement for an adult co-signer. The deal will provide kids 13 through 18 a place to track their savings and provide access to ATMs around Central Florida. After the kids turn 18, they will be able to open full-service checking accounts. CFE FCU is one of the biggest credit unions in Central Florida, with 113,000 members and more than $1 billion in assets.

NEW YORK – Trustees in the antitrust settlement with MasterCard and Visa USA began a third distribution Tuesday of checks to merchants involved in the so-called Wal-Mart antitrust case. About 128,000 checks with a total value of more than $300 million were distributed. Merchants in the case, including Wal-Mart, sued the two cards giants, claiming their ‘Honor-All-Cards’ policies violated antitrust laws. The policies linked acceptance of the networks' debit cards with their credit cards. The networks settled the case in the spring of 2003, with MasterCard agreeing to pay $1 billion and Visa agreeing to pay $2 billion. The two also agreed to de-link acceptance of the card products. The network payments cover overcharges for MasterCard and Visa signature debit and credit cards for the period from October 1992 to July 2003. About $650 million was sent to merchants in two previous distributions in December 2005 and June 2006.

WALL STREET – Investment bankers and their clients are fattening up on the growing number of credit unions converting to banks. Wall Street firms, like Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Friedman Billings Ramsay and Sandler O’Neill, among others have earned millions of dollars in fees, dividends and stock profits by juicing the profit machine that has become credit union conversions, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. KBF, for example, earned almost $1.2 million when it underwrote October’s initial public offering for ViewPoint Bank, the former Community CU, and stands to earn a similar amount when it brings an IPO for OmniAmerican Bank, formerly OmniAmerican CU, to market next year. FBR, has underwritten several of the stock offerings of converted credit unions, earning almost $1.5 million in the May 2005 IPO of Atlantic Coast Bancorp, once Atlantic Coast FCU. Sandler O’Neill, which is earning fees by helping to convert credit unions, has also earned millions of dollars in profits on the stocks of converted credit unions, SEC records show. The company, which has holdings in hundreds of financial companies, recently sold 100,000 shares in Heritage Bank of the South, formerly AGE FCU, for $1.7 million, earning a profit of more than 50% in less than a year on the ex-credit union that just went public in May 2005. Sandler O’Neill also made double-digit returns on the recent sale of 90,300 share in K-Fed Bancorp, formerly Kaiser FCU. The investment bank still holds large stakes in First PacTrust Bancorp, once Pacific Trust FCU, 98,100 shares valued at $2.8 million; and Rainier Pacific Bancorp, formerly Rainier Pacific CU, 80,000 shares valued at $1.6 million. That doesn’t include dividends earned on those shares, like the 17 cent-a-share fourth-quarter payout for First PacTrust, amounting to $16,700 on Sandler O’Neill’s shares.

KENSINGTON, Md. – NCUA has notified representatives of Lafayette FCU it has some concerns about the just-completed vote to convert the $330 million credit union, believed to be one of the closest votes ever for a credit union switch to bank. The credit union, which has been under intense opposition by a group of members who want to throw out the board over the loss of their credit union, has yet to disclose a vote count, though the management reported more than a week ago that members approved the charter switch. But in letters to the credit union’s supervisory board and its Washington attorney, Richard Garabedian, NCUA has questioned the voting process and the disclosures provided to members during the run-up to the December 16 special meeting where the 90-day ballot was culminated. One of the matters under review, according to Credit Union Journal sources familiar with the letters, is whether the credit union misled members when it told them it would not have to close branches inside federal offices for the Small Business Administration and Agency for Internal Development, its two main sponsor groups. Documents Lafayette filed with the Office of Thrift Supervision indicate because of security concerns the SBA Lafayette will have to close the SBA branch. NCUA has also raised questions about when the vote count ended; with some members saying they were told ballots could be mailed all the way until the day of the special meeting. The questions raised by NCUA will most likely extend the time it will take the federal regulator to certify the vote, as is required, at least past the January 2 deadline the credit union has promised its members.

IRVINE, Calif. – Autobytel Inc., operator of the popular auto buying web site, announced yesterday it will receive $20 million to settle a patent lawsuit with Dealix Corp. over an Internet-based system that matches customers and sellers looking to exchange automotive products and services. The settlement calls for the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Autobytel and a license allowing Dealix to use patented technology.

DENVER – First Data Corp. said last week it is reviewing three internal candidates to replace Chairman and CEO Henry C. ‘Ric’ Duques, who returned in November 2005 to lead the Denver-based processing giant. Duques told analysts during a conference call on Thursday that a board committee is working with an external group to find a new leader. Plans call for that person to be named in May or by the summer. The company was waiting to update stockholders on the search until after it had spun off its money transfer division, Western Union, in September, said Duques. He didn't name the candidates. Duques also said during Thursday's call that First Data planned next year to acquire firms outside the U.S. to build up its international division but he offered no further details. Duques came back for a two-year stint to revive First Data as some divisions stagnated and others remained in a holding pattern under former CEO Charles T. Fote. Duques had led First Data from 1992 until stepping down in 2002. Duques decided to spin off Western Union, revamped some divisions, put a greater focus on international expansion and returned the firm's focus to payments processing.

WEIRTON, W.V. – Five area credit unions provided cash donations to fill the AARP’s Blizzard Boxes with non-perishable items to ensure that people do not go hungry during bad winter weather. The credit unions, all members of the Weirton-Wellsburg Chapter, include: Eagle Can Employees FCU, First Choice America Community FCU, Hancock School Employees FCU, Strip Steel Community FCU and Tin Mill Employees FCU.

ROCKTON, Wis. – Members Alliance CU will be opening a branch in the new Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Rockton, the credit union’s third Wal-Mart branch. The new branch, the credit union’s sixth, will offer a full range of savings, checking and loan account products as well as financial planning services. The new Wal-Mart branch is scheduled to open March 14.

ALBUQUERQUE – New Mexico Educators FCU said yesterday it will pay members a special $1.7 million dividend at year-end. The payout will be based on both dividends earned and interest paid during the year by its 100,000 members. The $800 million credit union operates 11 branches and plans to open two more in February.

FLINT TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A local man was captured yesterday after he robbed three separate branches of Security FCU–all within hours of each other. The gun-brandishing thief hit the first branch in Flint around 10:30; then about an hour later robbed the branch in nearby Mt. Morris Township. The robber’s luck ran out later in the afternoon when he he was arrested after he held-up the branch in Flint Township. Police said he suspect has been convicted before on bank robbery charges.