Banking Wire articles from April 2002

Banking Wire archives from April 2002

U.S. Rep. (And CU Co-Founder) Has Challenge For Movement.
April 1, 2002... U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) may be in the best position of all to understand how credit unions can be the linchpin in revitalizing a community. A member of the House Financial Services Committee, she is also one of the founding...

QUOTES & NOTES.
April 1, 2002... Other notes from CUNA's GAC. * A member of the Qatar Press Agency crashed the Herb Wegner Memorial Awards Dinner, the signature black-tie event that helps kick off CUNA's GAC. The reporter claimed to have checked with CUNA before the...

Stalled Bill Shouldn't Stall Efforts, Says Mich. Rep.
April 1, 2002... The fact that the bankruptcy bill is still stalled in the Senate is the perfect example of why credit union people must stay involved politically, according to Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), in her remarks before CUNA's GAC. "You have to...

CUs Will Get Reg Relief, Says Chairman Oxley.
April 1, 2002... When Congress isn't dealing with Enron, the economy and the war on terror, at least one member of Congress is hoping it will take a look at regulatory relief for financial institutions, including CUs. House Financial Services Committee...

Community Page.
April 1, 2002... New Credit Union Branches Open The following CUs opened new branches: * Community Credit Union opened an Albertson's in-store branch at Northwest Highway and Ferndale in Dallas. * Landmark Credit Union celebrated the opening of its...

Nevada Federal's 15 Inventive Plans.
April 1, 2002... Here is the list of Nevada FCU Incentive Plans: Quality Service: For individual and team contributions. $uccess Quality: For quality of sales performance and leadership. Top Trans: For employees who perform 2,500 or more...

CEO Finds Online Chat Sessions With Employees Are Popular.
April 1, 2002... An online chat session with the CEO of Nevada FCU has proved a popular place for employees to bond with the boss, according to Brad Beal, president and CEO. Conducted via NFCU's Intranet, the sessions cover a wide range of subjects in...

Journal daily.
April 1, 2002... Another MN CU To Fed Charter ST. PAUL, Minn.-State regulators said last week they have approved an application from Northern States St. Cloud CU to convert to a federal charter, the third state credit union to flee the state charter so...

Another Internet Bank Shuttered.
April 1, 2002... Federal regulators said Friday they closed Net First National Bank, the bulk of whose business was an Internet-based credit card, and agreed to sell the assets of the failed institution to Bank Leumi USA. The bank, which had $34 million in...

NCUA Pushes Initiative.
April 1, 2002... NCUA is working with a newly created federal-state partnership to help launch its new Access Across America initiative aimed at increasing access to financial services in low-income communities across the country. NCUA Chairman Dennis...

CUs Face Big Fines, Compliance Costs For New Security.
April 2, 2002... The financial service industry may be hit with some hefty costs to upgrade their ATM equipment, or worse, replace them with machines that comply with new security software-or face equally severe fines if they fail to do so. Starting April...

Lawmakers Eye Regulatory Relief For Credit Unions.
April 2, 2002... A regulatory relief bill introduced in Congress last week would roll back several onerous provisions included in HR 1151, including a measure forcing federal credit unions to shut down all select employee groups (SEGs) after they convert to a...

NCUA Approves Quarterly Reporting For All Credit Unions.
April 2, 2002... The NCUA board last week voted to require all credit unions to file quarterly 5300 call reports to increase monitoring capabilities in light of the agency's new risk-based examinations policy. Currently, only CUs over $50 million in assets,...

No More 'Little Pieces of Paper': The Alabama League Has Introduced A CRM Application It Says Even The Smallest Credit Unions Can Use.
April 2, 2002... The relationship management culture is not completely out of reach for one-person marketing departments, thanks to a league-distributed customer relationship management (CRM) platform, CONNECTIONS, according to marketing managers at two credit...

Groundwork Laid For Bringing CUs To Afghanistan.
April 2, 2002... The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) has begun laying the groundwork to establish credit unions as a way to rebuild Afghanistan's economy. Discussions to date are preliminary, with WOCCU reps having spoken to several members of...

9-Step Program Intro'd To Boost Political Awareness.
April 2, 2002... CUNA and the American Association of Credit Union Leagues (AACUL) have put together what they are calling a "comprehensive political and grassroots program to make Congress and state legislatures aware of the power of credit union members."...

Group Turns Up Heat On CRA.
April 2, 2002... Credit unions aren't the only institutions taking heat from community groups over their record of service to the underserved. A consumer group is also turning up the heat on banks and calling for an overhaul to toughen up the Community...

Corporate Intro's Online CRM.
April 2, 2002... With more credit unions than ever exploring Member/Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and discovering it can be expensive, Nebraska Corporate Central Credit Union has launched Credit Union Enterprises (CUE), a CUSO that will offer...

Iowa's Surcharge Ban Is Banned.
April 2, 2002... A ban in Iowa on double ATM surcharges has been overturned in a ruling by U.S. District Judge Ronald Longstaff last week. The prohibition against second ATM surcharges in Iowa had been in place since 1977, and Iowa was the only state to...

Jax Navy CU To Become VyStar.
April 2, 2002... Effective April 29th, the credit union's 50th anniversary, Jax Navy Credit Union said it will begin operating under the name VyStar Credit Union. The credit union attributed the change to its switch to a state charter and its expanded field...

Fees, Fies Foes and Fumbles.
April 3, 2002... Just before this issue went to press, a bank-brokerage program manager who had been interviewed for this month's cover story called to ask that neither he nor his bank be identified by name in the piece. He has been locked in a dispute with a...

Fleet Consolidates Asset Management Under 'Columbia,' Mulls Fund Brand: Liberty will stay as mutual fund family for banks and other intermediaries, and may become the brand for all funds.
April 3, 2002... Liberty" is traditional, and "Galaxy" is vast, but of its three major asset management subsidiaries, FleetBoston has chosen "Columbia" as the new overall name for its $170 billion business. The big Boston bank says the name change signals its...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.
April 3, 2002... Hibernia Bank of New Orleans hired Steven Terry as president of its insurance subsidiary Hibernia Rosenthal. Terry comes from Fifth Third, where he was svp of the insurance division; he had been president and COO of Old Kent Insurance Group...

Scotiabank Buys Schwab In Canada: Boosts full-service brokerage and wealth management.
April 3, 2002... About the same time as Canada's pairs figure skaters took their feisty stand at the Olympics, another blow was being struck for Canadian self-determination: The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) agreed to buy the Canadian brokerage business of Charles...

Fifth Third Drives Broker Sales With Ambitious Ad Campaign: Pacific Life to Acquire College Savings Bank.
April 3, 2002... Fifth Third is in the midst of an ambitious multi-media advertising campaign to bring new business to its bank-based brokers. The campaign began with a television spot running in 10 urban markets during Olympics coverage on February 4, and will...

WE'VE LEARNED NOTHING: Despite the Enron-Andersen scandal, little has changed, at least so far.
April 3, 2002... Behold the grand hubbub about the collapse of Enron, and what well might be the disappearance of the once- venerable accounting firm of Arthur Andersen. But does anyone really care? Sure, people who have lost money care. That includes...

HAPPY TRILLION, CITI!
April 3, 2002... It has become uncouth to talk about asset size. But we can't ignore a breathtaking milestone: Citigroup's total assets passed the $1 trillion mark at the end of 2001. Sure, the bottom line is more important than size, but size has...

Tightening the Vise.
April 3, 2002... It's bad enough that JPMorgan Chase is slipping far behind Citigroup, but the pressure on Morgan Chase is tightening. Yes, its stock showed some improvement last month after hitting yearly lows, but deep doubts continue. Adding to these...

BAD LOANS, BAD LENDERS.
April 3, 2002... The times they are a-changin'. Along with the more-than-robust economy during the 1990s, the banking system was booming. Loan losses were few and banks built reserves as they racked up mighty profits. But the number of problem banks soared...

BOGGLING THE MIND.
April 3, 2002... You can't help but like Terry Murray, former CEO of FleetBoston Financial Corp. He's now chairman and is planning to retire at the end of the year. And despite some current hardships at the bank, there's no question Murray has built a huge...

Liberty Donates $25K To NCUF.
April 4, 2002... Liberty, already a top supporters of the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF), has donated an additional $25,000 to the charitable arm of the credit union movement. During ceremonies at the Herb Wegner Memorial Awards Dinner in Washington,...

Unless You Sell Chickens, Dump The .Coop Domain.
April 4, 2002... The NFL is now changing to all metric rushing and passing records. The Weather Channel is now going to use the Centigrade thermometer exclusively. Don't all Americans carry and use the Susan B Anthony Dollar coins? Ridiculous, huh? What I find...

New Aftech CEO Sets Goals For Quality Of Software, Client Support.
April 4, 2002... Creating a bug-free IT product-a sort of DP Holy Grail-as well as putting together a service bureau-like service without the bureau and rejuvenating enthusiasm among employees are among the goals Joe Antellocy has set for himself in his first...

CU Site Makes List.
April 4, 2002... According to an Internet traffic measurement released by Jupiter Media Metrix, Navy FCU's website was the 13th busiest among financial institutions during the most recent quarter. It was the only credit union to make the list. The $15.1-billion...

Rosy View On Wireless.
April 4, 2002... Its adoption rate has been slow, but research firm Gartner, Inc. has issued a report optimistic about the growth of wireless banking. It said 500,000 Americans used wireless access to accounts during 2001, a number it predicts will grow to 1.2...

CSCU Offering Check Images.
April 4, 2002... The $240-million Co-op Services Credit Union is now offering to members the ability to view and print their cancelled checks online from their web site at www.cscu.org. The new service is available through CSCU Direct, Co-op Services Credit...

IBM CU Adds Enhancements.
April 4, 2002... The 80,000-member IBM Mid America EFCU plans to begin offering online banking and bill payment services, including wireless delivery. IBM Mid America signed an agreement with the Lenexa, Kan.-based Innovision Corp. to provide it with the...

Loose Change.
April 4, 2002... Where's my Metris? By now, just about everyone knows the story of the six Barclays investment bankers who paid about $62,900 for wine during a dinner at London's swanky Petrus restaurant. Five of them got fired, although it is reported...

TOUGHER ON THE BIG BOYS.
April 4, 2002... Being bigger is not necessarily better for corporations seeking loans from their banks. A study by the Association for Financial Professionals indicates that banks are putting heavy pressure on their biggest borrowers to throw more...

Community First On Line In Insurance: TD Waterhouse Ready to Launch "Ready-to-Fund".
April 4, 2002... - Community First Bankshares of Fargo, ND, launched an on-line insurance business in conjunction with Digital Insurance of Atlanta. Initial offerings are term life and health. "Insurance fee income has increased from $5 million in 1997 to $12.5...

Members Offered Credit Reports.
April 5, 2002... Great Lakes Credit Union here is now offering members a link from its website at www.glcu.org to Equifax Consumer Services, where members can check their credit reports. Members can determine their credit score and locate any inaccuracies in...

JDCCU Offers E-Statements.
April 5, 2002... John Deere Community Credit Union (JDCCU) is now offering its 94,000 members eStatements, an electronic version of monthly paper statements. The credit union said some key benefits of eStatements include free service; eStatements will be...

CUs Represented On OFX Panel.
April 5, 2002... Terrence McDermond, senior software engineer at Summit, has been selected as co-chairman of the Credit Application Working Group of the Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum. McDermond will help steer development of IFX open system...

Two CUs Choose Digital Dialogue.
April 5, 2002... Digital Dialogue announced two Connecticut-based credit unions-Groton-based Charter Oak and Norwalk-based Greater Norwalk Area Credit Union- have chosen it to provide Internet-empowered call center services. Members of both credit unions will...

MIT FCU Converts To VIFI.
April 5, 2002... Massachusetts Institute of Technology FCU (MIT FCU) announced it has converted its online products to the VIFI, Indianapolis, Ind. online banking platform. The VIFI platform will provide MIT FCU members with a branded Internet banking system...

The Touch Side of Technology: How Truliant FCU Is Introducing New Technologies To Members.
April 5, 2002... It takes a combination of strategies and skills, among them touch, to introduce successfully new technology to members, according to one credit union that balances a coffee machine, news library and kiddie corner against video loan officers....

Phil Wood First State Bank &Trust, Fremont, NE: This rep's small-town attitude has paid off big-time for this Nebraska rep's team. Referrals constitute 70% to 80% of all business.
April 5, 2002... This rep lives in a small Nebraska town, where he has built a strong team to keep clients well-informed about their investments. Familiar with the strong neighborly ties of small-town life, Phil Wood has incorporated that intimacy into his...

BRIEFS.
April 5, 2002... CEOs Expect a Recovery A recent survey of CEOs of small and mid-sized firms shows that 60% expect the U.S. economy will rebound this year. Another 26% said they believed the economy was already rebounding. The quarterly survey was...

Joke of the Month.
April 5, 2002... Immediately after New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced that Citigroup had agreed to pay a $1.6 million fine, and had agreed to "end deceptive practices," Citi had the chutzpah to hold itself up as "an industry leader in...

BANKING THE DENSE.
April 5, 2002... Duh. Yes, people can be pretty dense when it comes to managing their own finances. Comercia is now planning to do something about it - or at least take advantage of it. The Detroit-based bank has launched a radio and print advertising campaign...

Software Boosts Golden 1's E-Mail Response Time.
April 8, 2002... E-mail is hot. Managing it is not, especially when a credit union gets 5,000 member messages per month. That's why the $3.8-billion Golden 1 Credit Union automated e-mail management in October, slashing response times and freeing staff to...

EDS Acquires Minerva, Expertise In ALM Capabilities.
April 8, 2002... An asset/liability management (ALM) system "written by credit union people, especially for credit union people" is the latest addition to EDS' Credit Union Industry Group, according to Dave Campbell, client executive. EDS gained 345 new...

Network Attached Storage Feature Eliminates Downtime, Adds Speed.
April 8, 2002... Cursed is the day when a $1-billion credit union's core system is unavailable.Yet Travis CU has gritted its teeth many a time over the years, as processing and purging went on into the wee hours. "End-of-month reports were not complete...

Strategies Are Lacking In Rush To Offer E-Services.
April 8, 2002... According to the NCUA, the number of credit unions offering online transactions rose by 15.7% during the first half of 2001, and the number of credit unions with websites grew by 8.9% (CU Journal, Aug. 16, 2001). While those figures may...

College Savings Plans Promise Big Potential Sales For Bank Reps: With last year's tax-law changes, 529 plans are more compelling than ever, but advisers have as steep a learning curve ahead as consumers do.
April 8, 2002... Mark Beeson, president of OneGroup mutual funds, subsidiary of Bank One, Chicago Jay J. Steinacher, first vp and manager of college savings at Union Bank & Trust, Lincoln, NE Bruce Ferris, vp and general manager of investment sales for...

Does a Recovery Demand Value or Growth?: The two major categories offer choices to advisers seeking to guide their clients.
April 8, 2002... MICHAEL FORSTL: Nuveen Rittenhouse In some respects, Enron was the ultimate growth stock, with an ever-increasing earnings forecast as it spread its business model across different markets. Now Michael Forstl, managing director at Nuveen...

Does a Recovery Demand Value or Growth?: The two major categories offer choices to advisers seeking to guide their clients.
April 8, 2002... MICHAEL QUINN: Oppenheimer Funds Growth stocks may outperform as the economy grows, but usually perform better toward the latter part of the cycle, when the economy shifts into growth mode, says Michael Quinn, vp at Oppenheimer Funds. He...

Killer-PEDE in Pastoral Paradise.
April 8, 2002... It's a bit like walking through a pastoral paradise and accidentally kicking over a rock. Beneath that rock the beauty dissolves, as an ugly centipede emerges. True, the centipede is not really dangerous, and doesn't mean any harm-but it...

HARRY V. KEEFE JR. Dean of Banking.
April 8, 2002... Harry Keefe's death last month at the age of 79 rekindled memories of what banking had been a mere three decades ago. Bank stocks hadn't been listed on the stock exchanges until about 1972, and until then most bank stock trading was in the...

Letters To The Editor.
April 8, 2002... To the Editor: In your March 2002 "Point of View" column you write that "Bankers' ethics have been deteriorating for years." I think that is incorrect. Some bankers, certainly a minority, have violated the ethics that the rest of us, a...

LoanCenter App Rolls Out In Two More CUs.
April 9, 2002... The $1.2-billion North Island FCU reports it has successfully interfaced APPRO's LoanCenter automated loan processing system with its core processing system, provided by Open Solutions Inc. (OSI). The interface between LoanCenter and the core...

CUNA Mutual Mortgage Adds Mortgagebot.
April 9, 2002... CUNA Mutual Mortgage Corp. said it is adding Mortgagebot to its MEMBER'S CHOICE netMortgage online lending solution. Mortgagebot is a provider of Internet-based mortgage loan origination systems, which will design, build and host...

Liberty Cavion Intro's 'Next Generation' Portal.
April 9, 2002... Liberty Cavion has partnered with Vertical Innovation to offer what the companies are calling a "next generation financial portal." "VI's financial portal and aggregation solutions are the most comprehensive and cost-effective offerings in...

CCCorp Turns 25, Recalls Its History Of Firsts.
April 9, 2002... Computer Consultants Corp. is marking its 25th birthday. It has 630 credit union clients. "We began in the earliest days of microcomputer systems by consulting with businesses seeking hardware and programming and have focused exclusively on the...

Changing Broker-Dealers.
April 9, 2002... Is bank brokerage programs grow in number, size, and scope, conversions from one broker-dealer or third-party marketer to another become more common. Rivalry among BDs and TMPs is increasing, but the two biggest issues in a switch are the...

Does Size and Reputation Matter? HSBC's Leslie Bains Says They Do, Though Integrity Matters Most of All.
April 9, 2002... The bank's private banking and wealth management division also benefits from a global perspective, which reaches to Europe and Asia. But the firm's toughest challenge is hawking its brand in the U.S., where it's not exactly a household name....

After Gradual 5-Year Climb, Sales of Bank Products Soar: Insurance now accounts for 10% of top performers' total bank net income.
April 9, 2002... THE BANKING BUSINESS began in earnest to seek its place on the distribution landscape with the historic ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Barnett Bank case. The time since has been filled with successes, failures, controversy, myths...

Corillian Bares Its Knuckles.
April 9, 2002... The gloves are off. Corillian Corp. is looking for new customers and it isn't bashful about trying to pry them loose from Digital Insight. Corillian says it wants a chunk of Digital Insight's business and recently began a direct...

Person-to-Person Payments Up for Grabs.
April 9, 2002... A lot of churning is going on in the person-to-person payments business, and a shakeout is likely. The two leaders have serious problems or limitations, and at least one competitor is waiting in the wings to take advantage of the situation....

AIBM Nabs Huge Outsourcing Deal, Expects More.
April 9, 2002... American Express decided it was time to outsource its information technology operations, and tapped IBM to do so. And a big deal it is; in fact, IBM says its deal with Amex is the largest outsourcing agreement any vendor has ever signed with...

Harland Plans To Integrate Touche With CTI.
April 10, 2002... Harland Financial Solutions, a division of John H. Harland Co., announced it has initiated a project to integrate its Touch? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) product with Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) technology from Maxxar Corp.,...

Ability To Monitor Ag Loans Cited For Decision.
April 10, 2002... The $410-million Wabash County Farm Bureau CU has selected Summit Information Systems, a Corvallis, Ore.-based unit of Fiserv, to provide its new core processing solution. The credit union's president, Bruce Ingraham, said one reason for...

CUDL Releases Workflow Manager 2.0.
April 10, 2002... CU Direct Corp. said it has released CUDL Workflow Manager 2.0, an "improved and enhanced software that allows credit unions to better manage information they receive electronically about financing requests made by their members from automobile...

Two RI CUs Select OSI's Aggregation App.
April 10, 2002... Open Solutions Inc. (OSI), a provider of integrated enterprise core data processing, Internet-based banking financial solutions and other delivery systems for credit unions, announced that its OmniView Account Aggregation offering has been...

Platform Sales Programs Set to Soar at Many Banks.
April 10, 2002... From a new program at a community bank in Florida to a core strategy at several national players,Series 6 reps selling annuities and mutual funds are poised to shoot for the moon Eighty miles south of Cape Canaveral and three decades after...

Wells Fargo Aims at New Segment: Grandma's Financial, Health Needs.
April 10, 2002... Frenzied baby boomers sandwiched between aging parents and growing children may have found a friend in this service, which caters to the ultra-elderly. The bank knows a good thing: Program expansion is under way. Occasionally, when passion...

Celent Communications Rates Top Wealth Management Products.
April 10, 2002... Yes, banks can have it all when it comes to technological options. But institutions have to determine their priorities-and price limitations. The big winners in both fields: SunGard and DirectAdvice. Managing the wealth of affluent...

Download.
April 10, 2002... Bank One Corp. has signed a deal with Foundation Source to launch Bank One Private Client Foundation, a new wealth management product...Marlborough Savings Bank in Massachusetts signed a deal with Metavante Corp. to use its software engine...

Economic Trends Point to Improvement for Credit Card Industry in 2002.
April 10, 2002... There's just more and more of it around these days. That's because the credit card industry has found all sorts of ways of infiltrating people's wallets. From credit cards, to debit cards, to stored value cards, there's a card for every kind...

Debit The Big Story in 2002.
April 10, 2002... The big story in 2002, consultants say, is the trend towards usage of debit cards, driven in part by the recession and high consumer debt levels on credit cards. One survey of 1,500 consumers conducted last year by the American Bankers...

Strategies for Excellence: How To Become a Superstar Manager.
April 11, 2002... Courage and conviction are traits common to all successful managers. But the most important attribute is discipline, because all things come to those who work, and managers must create enthusiasm. In my experience, the single biggest...

Branding Rift Wide Open at Amex: Subbrand launch a first for card giant.
April 11, 2002... Slowly but surely the American Express Co. appears to be driving a wedge between its cherished name and the strategy it uses to sell its products in the small business marketplace. Today, more than a half dozen card products are available...

A Brilliant Risk.
April 11, 2002... Dear Colleague: Who knew? The American Express Co., the shrewdest marketer of corporate brands in U.S. history, has done what was unthinkable in launching OPEN: The Small Business Network back in January. Amex ditched its own brand. ...

BANKING BRIEFS.
April 11, 2002... Bank Appoints Exec Sterling National Bank has appointed Harvey Friedman to the position of managing director of its asset-based lending department, the bank has announced. Friedman will report to Howard Applebaum, the senior lending...