E1 Financial Credit Union, Monterey Park, Calif., named Dennis Gutierrez community relations officer.

Prompted by the recent onslaught of natural disasters or emergencies and the massive dislocation they have caused, CUNA last week issued a national disaster preparedness plan for credit unions that coordinates responses to financial, communication and operational challenges that have resulted.

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BROOKFIELD, Wis. - Fiserv said its USERs data processing subsidiary has completed the interface of TraceSecurity's TraceAuthenticate multi-factor online authentication system with its PCU Internet Banking solution.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Summit FCU has obtained permission to serve the 2,500 companies that make up the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, an estimated 250,000 employees.

What is the face of credit unions? Most likely, you're inside the credit union community and you have an "inside" answer-the trade groups or delegations hiking their respective Hills or that glossy photo of the board of directors you've framed in every branch.

"What's our next marketing campaign and how will it be done?" Even credit unions with comprehensive marketing plans can sometimes find themselves scratching their heads with this question at times. After that question is finally answered, the challenge then becomes putting together a marketing campaign on time and within budget.

The July 31 issue of The Credit Union Journal featured an article entitled, "How to give paper, microfiche the COLD shoulder." This article overlooked the benefits of workflow as part of an enterprise content management (ECM) system. Once known simply as document imaging and COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk), ECM is a term that has evolved to include a wide variety of applications common to most credit unions such as document imaging, workflow, electronic document management, COLD/ECM and records management-all important applications for a credit union of any size.

DAYTON, Ohio – DayMet CU announced Friday it has appointed Annlouise Peroutka as its new president and CEO. Peroutka is the former vice president of credit union operations at the Ohio CU League and executive director of the Ohio CU Foundation. DayMet has about $200 million in assets and almost 25,000 members.

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Students at two local elementary schools went on a virtual trip back to the American Revolution last week, courtesy of BrightStar CU. As part of a program created by Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the students learned how money and consumerism worked during the colonial era of the 18th century via closed circuit television. The course explored the monetary system of the times, taxes and the colonists’ fight to win their economic freedom from England.

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Members CU announced it has contracted with American Recovery Association of Dallas to provide it with comprehensive collateral recovery services. The non-profit association will provide the credit union with free recovery software, powered by Recovert Database Network, a web-based application that provides an interface between lenders and repossession service providers. The system allows collection agents to view collateral recovery information, condition reports, photographs and invoices.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Housing Finance Board has put aside a controversial plan to lift retained earnings at the Federal Home Loan Banks, which could have forced as many as half of the 12 regional banks to trim the lucrative quarterly dividends they pay their bank and credit union members. The capital plan has been shelved indefinitely because of a lack of consensus on the five-member FHFB, the regulator for the 12 FHLBs, sources told The Credit Union Journal. The Finance Board is expected at its meeting Friday to begin filling almost 60 vacancies among public interest directorships on each of the Boards of each of the 12 banks, something that congressional critics have urged it to do.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – On the heels of a $1.3 billion deal for Internet services provider Digital Insight, financial software giant Intuit Inc., announced Friday it is acquiring Electronic Clearing House Inc., a check and card processor credit unions, banks and retailers, for $142 million. The latest deal will allow Intuit to offer more payment services to small business, a market it targeted with the acquisition for Digital Insight. Electronic Clearing House, known as ECHO, is based in Camarillo, Calif., and is one of a dozen commercial entities vying in the market for electronic payments. Intuit announced an agreement on Nov. 30 to acquire Digital Insight, which provides Internet banking services for more than 1,500 financial institutions, half of which are credit unions.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – PSCU Financial Services will announce today it has agreed to implement TriCipher Armored Credential System as part of its InfoLink Plus card service. TriCipher’s system will allow consumers digital identity protection when viewing credit card account information online over InfoLink Plus. Implementation of the TriCipher system will also satisfy new federal requirements for multifactor authentication by year-end.

PHOENIX – Arizona FCU topped off a record week of Holiday Season dividends Friday by announcing a $10 million year-end payment to its members. Call it what you will, credit unions all over the country were announcing million-dollar paydays for their members last week, returning their built-up retained earnings to their member/owners. Pennsylvania State Employees CU announced a $7.5 million special dividend on Friday. And Tyndall FCU announced a $3 million bonus dividend. “This ‘cash out’ is in keeping with the institution’s Mission Statement,” said Jim Warren, president of the $745 million credit union, “Tyndall Federal Credit Union exists for the benefit of our members.” Earlier last week, Founders FCU announced a $6 million bonus dividend; Eastman CU a $1 million; Dort FCU and Fort Campbell FCU each reported $1 million payouts to members. And topping it all off, DFCU Financial announced it will be paying a $17.5 million special dividend after the first of the year, the largest payout ever for a credit union.

ALBANY, Ga. – On May 19, less than a year after taking their former credit union public in an initial public stock offering, nine executives and directors of Heritage Bank of the South, known until 2001 as AGE FCU, paid themselves 160,820 shares in the newly public bank, valued today at almost $3 million. The largest recipient of the stock grants–which vest in five annual installments but pay dividends immediately–was CEO Leonard Dorminey, who was given 53,300 shares valued at $900,000, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records. Along with stock he bought in the IPO, Dorminey, who engineered the conversion of the credit union that once served CSX Railroad employees, has amassed more than 84,000 in the ex-credit union–valued Friday at $1.4 million. The former credit union executive is just one of a small group of managers and directors who have built up million-dollar stakes in just a few years after converting their credit unions to banks. Others are: John Fiore, president of Synergy Financial (Synergy FCU), who has amassed almost $5 million worth of stock in the former credit union; Hans Ganz, president of Pacific First Bancorp (Pacific Trust FCU), $3.6 million worth of stock; John Hall, president of Rainier Pacific Financial Group (Rainier Pacific CU), $3 million; Kay Hoveland, president of K-Fed Bancorp (Kaiser FCU), $2 million; Robert Larison, president of Atlantic Coast Financial (Atlantic Coast FCU) $2 million, or Herbert Moltzan, who earned $1.5 million on his shares in BUCs Federal Bank (BUCs FCU) when he sold the former credit union to a Pennsylvania banking company three months ago. Directors have also cashed in on their credit unions. Like the six former volunteers of Rainier Pacific, who have accumulated more than $1 million worth of stock in the fledgling bank, led by Edward Brooks, longtime chairman of the board, who has amassed $1.5 million worth of stock. Or Alvin Majors, chairman of the board at Pacific Trust, who has collected almost $2 million of stock in the bank he created out of a credit union. That doesn’t include the salaries and stipends now paid the former volunteer credit union directors, which average between $20,000 and $25,000 a year. In at least one case, Heritage Bank/AGE FCU, two directors, were awarded retirement pensions of $24,000 a year for their long-time volunteer work as credit union directors.

ARLINGTON, Va. – Both Lafayette FCU Chairman Arnold Rosenthal and President Michael Hearne denied during Saturday afternoon’s special meeting on the credit union’s proposed conversion to bank that they were motivated by the millions of dollars in financial benefits that have been paid out to other credit union leaders who turned their institutions into banks. “I’ve been a volunteer for 15 years, why would I change now?” Rosenthal told the tiny gathering. But several members who are work colleagues of Rosenthal’s at the U.S. Small Business Administration, the credit union’s main sponsor group, remembered it differently, saying directors were counting their dollars even before the conversion was presented to members. “Arnie was going around telling everybody he was going to be a millionaire,” said one co-worker at the meeting, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal at work. The meeting got off to a rocky start, with Ronsenthal assailing opponents of the conversion as ‘chicken littles,’ prompting some angry members to walk out. “It seems they want to pull the wool over everybody’s eyes,” said Janine Finnell, who voted against the switch to bank, then left. John Gunning, another member who left early after voting ‘no’, said he plans to join another local credit union, Arlington Government Employees FCU, if the conversion goes through. “If I wanted a bank, there are plenty of them,” said Gunning. But, he insisted he will retain a small deposit in Lafayette, in order to qualify for what is expected to be a lucrative IPO soon after the conversion. Rosenthal and Hearne told the members the credit union needed the extra capital from a stock offering after converting to a mutual savings bank in order to expand its market, which, they said is limited by the stagnant growth at Lafayette’s main select groups in the federal government. But neither one explained that NCUA granted the credit union permission three years ago to serve all of the city of Washington, D.C. , as well as the government groups, as an underserved expansion. Fewer than 75 members took the trip, a 45-minute drive to Virginia from Lafayette’s Maryland offices; and officials assiduously prevented the media and other outsiders from attending, having an armed guard remove The Credit Union Journal reporter, then calling local Arlington Police to guard against reentry. Results of the 90-day vote will be announced Monday after all of the mail ballots are counted.

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio FCU said yesterday it has opened a new branch opposite the new Toyota truck manufacturing plant, abandoning a plan to operate the branch jointly with Toyota FCU in California. SACU said it has also received permission from NCUA to serve anyone who works at Toyota, at one of the company’s on-site suppliers, or who live or work near the truck assembly plant. It is the 18th full-service branch for the $2 billion credit union.

BALTIMORE – Authorities were searching yesterday for a man who robbed Tower FCU Wednesday, the ninth credit union or bank he has held-up over the past 18 months. The man entered the credit union branch just before closing and demanded cash, then fled with an undetermined amount of money. A reward of $10,000 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest.

ST. LOUIS – A genial patron wearing a dark suit and fedora hat and smoking a pipe while he waits for an available teller, may not be a gentleman after all, but a serial robber who has stumped investigators over the past two months. The bandit, dubbed the ‘Gentleman Thief,’ for his nature and dress, began with a robbery last month at Arsenal CU, then hit at least four more area financial institutions since then. When he gets to the teller, he usually opens his appointment books and pulls out a note that he calmly hands over saying, ‘This is a robbery, I have a gun, don’t be stupid.” So far, though, the Gentleman has not showed a gun.