Banking Wire articles from January 2007

Banking Wire archives from January 2007

CUNA, WOCCU Welcome International CU Leaders.
January 2, 2007... Madison, Wis. -- CUNA and World Council of Credit Unions welcomed credit union leaders from the world's seven largest credit union associations: Canada, Ireland, Australia, the Caribbean, Poland, Brazil and the United States, at meetings this...

Goldenwest Members Get Early Christmas Help.
January 2, 2007... OGDEN, Utah -- Members of Goldenwest FCU got some help with their Christmas shopping this week-a one-time bonus dividend. The pre-Christmas payout represents an additional 5.75% paid for the month of December, based on the average daily...

Veridian CU Makes $15K Financial Literacy Grants.
January 2, 2007... WATERLOO, Iowa -- Veridian CU announced yesterday it had awarded $15,000 in financial education grants to five local organizations. They are: Youth Leadership Program for helping low-income and single-parent families to learn team-building...

High School Football Earns Altura CU Rewards.
January 2, 2007... RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Altura CU rewarded nine area high schools for their successful football programs with donations of $8,200. The $700-million credit union sponsored the homecoming game at each of the schools with a $500 contribution,...

CO-OP Financial Is Eying New England Markets.
January 2, 2007... MARLBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England CU Services LLC, a CUSO owned by the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island credit union leagues, announced a deal to market the CO-OP Financial Services ATM network to the 270 credit unions in the three...

NJCUL Hosts 1,000 At Its 72nd Annual Convention.
January 2, 2007... ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- The New Jersey CU League's 72nd Annual Meeting and Convention drew nearly 1,000 people this year, where such luminaries the captain of the 1980 Olympic Gold Medal-winning U.S. Ice Hockey Team to "Bob, The Credit Union...

Mountain America Keeps Health Care Costs Low.
January 2, 2007... SALT LAKE CITY -- Mountain America Credit Union boasts five years without an increase in health insurance premiums. Mountain America participates in a variety of programs and activities to promote health and wellness, including: *...

CUES, WesCorp Cancel Exec/Economic Meeting.
January 2, 2007... MADISON, Wis. -- The Credit Union Executives Society and Western Corporate Federal Credit Union have cancelled the Executive Finance & Economics Institute, scheduled for Feb. 11-16. The two organizations are considering making modifications...

Hot Air Visitor Lands At CUANM.
January 2, 2007... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Credit Union Association of New Mexico had a unique visitor "drop by" during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta when a hot air balloon landed in its parking lot. Luckily for the balloonists, Mary Beth...

How To Keep Board, Management, Staff On Same Page.
January 2, 2007... LAS VEGAS -- When the board, management and staff are all working off the same sheet, they can make beautiful music together. The key, several experts suggest, is in the composers (senior management and board), the conductors (middle...

Product & Service.
January 3, 2007... RP Solutions Launches Website ITHACA, N.Y.-RP Solutions, Inc. launched its new website that offers more data on its products and services, and a dedicated Check 21 resource area. Material has also been added about the company's history in...

SECU Continues "Green" Trend.
January 3, 2007... Raleigh, N.C -- State Employees' Credit Union (SECU) Board of Directors has approved a "Green" Car Loan program. The program is designed for members purchasing new Hybrid and Alternative Fuel vehicles that are more environmentally friendly and...

News from The Road.
January 3, 2007... Experian and LSI Team Up ELGIN, Ill.-Lending Solutions Inc. announced it has formed an alliance with Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Experian. Lending Solutions and Experian have created a program to enable credit unions to recapture auto...

How To Increase E-mail Opt-Ins.
January 3, 2007... ATLANTA -- A significant number of consumers who opt-out of receiving e-mail from financial institutions responded to some type of incentive in exchange for opt-in participation, according to a recent study by Synergistics Research. The...

Likely Culprit: Someone You Know.
January 3, 2007... COSTA MESA, Calif. -- According to the latest Experian-Gallup Personal Credit Index survey, nearly one in five (19%) consumers report they have had their financial information stolen, including a bank or credit card number. Approximately one in...

Low Income, High Fee Income.
January 3, 2007... SALISBURY, Md. -- Unbanked and financially underserved households in the U.S., which currently number more than 35-million (excluding about 9-million undocumented aliens), spend an estimated $10-billion annually in fees related to financial...

Need To Spark Membership Growth? Plan To Be In Boston In April.
January 3, 2007... WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Membership growth was almost flat during the first half of 2006, and the squeeze on profitability has been well documented. Yet some credit unions have been experiencing robust increases in membership and healthy bottom...

Attention CU Story-Tellers!
January 3, 2007... WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- CUs know what their strengths are and the advantages over banks they have to offer to consumers. But they often keep it secret, even though telling that story can be a very effective strategy underpinning growth. Has...

Credit Unions In Their Communities.
January 3, 2007... * Altier Credit Union, Tempe, Ariz., donated $21,000 to the Special Olympics Arizona. * Wescom Credit Union, Pasadena, Calif., received a Pewter Stag Award from the Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. for its commitment to safety. ...

GAO Cites CUNA Influence At NCUA.
January 3, 2007... WASHINGTON -- In still another government study, the Government Accountability Office recommended that the NCUA Board be expanded to five members, from the current three, in order to diversify points of view and to ensure continuity when the...

All Our Futures.
January 4, 2007... Judging from what advisors and program managers are saying (see Industry Outlook, page 10), 2007 looks like it will bring improvements to the industry-a more favorable interest rate environment could help boost annuity sales and provide the...

NCUA Gives Members More Say In CU Conversions To Banks.
January 4, 2007... ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The NCUA Board approved a new rule shifting to members some of the powers over credit union conversions to banks from boards and management who allegedly have tended to manipulate the process in recent charter switches. ...

MFA: Secure Enough?: Multi-Factor Deadline Looms, But It May Not Be The Answer.
January 4, 2007... AUSTIN -- With the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Committee's deadline for implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) looming, a series of hacking efforts that have managed to use the MFA movement against itself has some in the...

CUs Outspend Banks By 2-To-1 On Tech.
January 4, 2007... SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Industry insiders know credit unions are frequently on the cutting edge of new technology, but a new report shows that CUs are spending as much as twice as much money on technology as mid-size banks. For the study, 62...

Decision Expected On Heels Of $17.5M Div.
January 4, 2007... DEARBORN, Mich. -- As DFCU Financial officials were preparing for the latest round in a suit against the credit union over its ill-fated conversion, CU officials announced they would issue one of the largest dividends in credit union...

Pricing Study Shows CU-Bank Difference.
January 4, 2007... MADISON, Wis. -- A new Filene Research Institute study offers tangible proof of the credit union difference, showing CU pricing to be consumer driven, while bank pricing is profit-driven. "It's good news for credit unions," said Mark Meyer,...

Capital Markets, Trade Is Paulson's Focus: Henry Paulson is known for not mincing words. He didn't do it as chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, and, as Treasury Secretary, it's clear his style will be true to form-good news to those looking for answers and opportunity.
January 4, 2007... Long before he became Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson mastered the art of owning a room, in equal parts due to his cunning, brash style and undeniably big appetite for making things happen. He was the force behind Goldman Sachs, and when he...

De Novos: More Startups Seek Perks Of Being Holding Company: Tax benefits follow high initial costs.
January 4, 2007... Bank startups have been on a tear over the past year, largely because they represent a profitable investment opportunity. And of those startups, a much higher percentage is starting life with a holding-company corporate structure. Bob...

Online Banking: Intuit's DI Buy Setting Stage For Web PFM?: Quicken gets back in the saddle for small business.
January 4, 2007... After mostly uneventful forays into Web financial services in recent years, Intuit is making a sudden new leap into online banking with its acquisition of Digital Insight - a well-nested vendor with over 1,700 hosted institutional clients - and...

Biometrics: Not the Apple of Their Eye: Without clear value-add, banks aren't wild on current bio-authentication.
January 4, 2007... For authenticating online banking users, facial recognition is no better than 10 to 15 years away, says Patrick Audley, CTO of identity vendor Cogneto. The low resolution of cheap Web cams means "we're talking a false acceptance rate of maybe...

New Realities in Asset Management.
January 5, 2007... It has been a record year for asset management deals, and banks continue to adjust to a changing landscape that could see more of them leave the business, banking and investment analysts say. The $43 billion merger announced on Dec. 4 will...

On Deadline.
January 5, 2007... NCUA Plans Dividend Payout to CUs In 2007 ALEXANDRIA, Va.-NCUA said last week it expects to pay all federally insured credit unions a dividend on their NCUSIF deposit, for the first time in six years. The dividend is expected to be as...

CUNA Develops National Disaster Response Program.
January 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- 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...

CUNA Works Other Side Of Aisle.
January 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- CUNA wasted little time after last month's elections in reaching out with campaign contributions to Democrat leaders who will control both chambers of Congress next year. Federal Elections Commission reports show CUNA...

Worth Noting.
January 5, 2007... Minnesota League Names CEO MINNEAPOLIS-The Minnesota CU Network has hired Mark Cummins, vice chairman of the CU Association of Colorado and president of Denver-based White Crown FCU, as its new CEO. Cummins has 28 years experience in...

CU Marketing Unmasked: Are You Pretty Or Effective?
January 5, 2007... 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...

Remittances: Following the Money: Capturing Migrant Workers: Translating one-offs into full-time customers.
January 5, 2007... No bank south of the Mason-Dixon line-or west of the Mississippi-denies the importance of a robust remittance program for migrants workers. But how to turn those remittance senders into full-time customers, even ones who need a simple checking...

Fresh Ink.
January 5, 2007... 1. In a blockbuster deal, The Bank of New York announced it would buy Pittsburgh's Mellon Financial, creating the biggest custodian of institutional assets in the U.S. The purchase price was $16.6 billion. In 1998, BoNY had offered $24 billion...

Cards: Online Resources' Gift Bag: It's combining bill pay, e-banking technology for a fast-load stored value card.
January 5, 2007... Gift cards have become the new hallmark of the pressed-for-time shopper, to the tune of what sources say is a $40 billion market. Online Resources is hoping to cash in on that demand with a stored value card that combines the tech firm's online...

Predicting IT's Future Can Help Players Set Agendas.
January 5, 2007... After the wish lists and resolutions have faded, there are the inevitable predictions about how the new year will play out. This year, Gartner weighs in with its "Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2007 and Beyond," a special...

Worried Boomers Need Market Advice.
January 8, 2007... While the majority of baby boomers acknowledge that they haven't saved enough for their retirements, many of them are wary of investing in the stock market, according to a Dec. 4 NAVA survey. The survey, conducted for NAVA by Kelton...

How A Marketing Resource Plan Can Help Keep Budget, Calendar On Track In 2007.
January 8, 2007... "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...

Letter To The Editor: Don't Overlook Benefit Of Workflow, ECM.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... 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...

CUNA Establishes Itself As Campaign Finance Power.
January 8, 2007... WASHINGTON -- CUNA was out writing campaign contributions of $38,000 just days after the elections, having already spent more than $3.5 million on the mid-term elections. CUNA's campaign financing in the just-completed elections-more than...

Bankers Keep Sanders Off House Banking Panel.
January 8, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Vermont's Bernard Sanders, the leading advocate of credit unions in the House who was elected to the Senate last month, won't be serving on the Banking Committee, where he hoped to introduce the CU Regulatory Improvements Act. But...

Scandal Target, CURIA Sponsor Wins Election.
January 8, 2007... NEW ORLEANS -- Democratic Congressman William Jefferson, the first African American elected to the House in Louisiana since Reconstruction, won easy reelection to the House last week in a special election, despite being the target of a...

Ohio Supreme Court Rules Cities Can't Regulate Predatory Lending.
January 8, 2007... Effectively ending six years of litigation, the Ohio Supreme Court recently struck down patchwork municipal predatory-lending laws, confirming that state regulations supercede local laws on the issue. The American Financial Services...

Noted Noteworthy.
January 8, 2007... Academy-Award-winning producer Ben Shedd is readying a 30-minute documentary, "Green is the Color of Money," about the green Banner Bank building in Boise. The building, designed by HDR Architecture and built by The Russell Corp., was finished...

Lead Generation: Family First Finds Tailor-Made Sales Prospects: The Chicago mortgage lender is utilizing a new "e-Bay-style" online exchange for mortgage leads that lets institutions set the time and place for bidding on leads.
January 8, 2007... If the mortgage market is on the downswing, competition for the highest quality leads will be more intense than ever, and that's drawing attention to an alternative online lead exchange that allows lenders to stipulate exactly what kinds of...

News Makers.
January 8, 2007... CONSUMER FEARS COST $2B In Web Sales Security concerns over online shopping or banking online may sometimes be vague or nebulous, but Gartner has quantified what that reluctance costs banks and e-tailers. A survey of 5,000 U.S. adults...

Annuity Sales Fall Despite Market Pickup.
January 9, 2007... Sales of both variable and fixed annuities declined in September, according to a Dec. 6 report by Kehrer/LIMRA and Jackson National Life. Total bank sales of annuities fell 8% compared with August's figures, down from $3.7 billion to $3.4...

Dividends Score with Investors.
January 9, 2007... Twenty-six year-olds and their grandfathers may not share the same investment philosophies, but there are a few ideas that transcend generations, according to the results of a recent survey by Eaton Vance. Everyone likes dividends; no one...

Top Tech Deals.
January 9, 2007... Number One Capping off a busy month of buying, Intuit purchased processor Electronic Clearing House for $142 million. Intuit says ECHO's ACH capabilities will round it its payments offerings in check services, and will allow it to offer...

Phishing Trip: A Magic Bullet Becomes The Crooks' New Weapon: The latest in phishing schemes uses dual authentication sign-ups to scam bank customers.
January 9, 2007... December 2006 technically was the deadline for compliance with the FFIEC's authentication guidelines for Internet banking. While the industry as a whole is not on schedule, the next criminal element is-with a twist. This time, the crooks are...

Congressional Comeback Spearheaded by CUs.
January 9, 2007... SAN DIEGO -- Credit unions raised more than $25,000 in the final days of last month's mid-term elections to help fuel Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray's return to Congress. Among those contributing to a last-minute fundraiser at Mission...

Desert Schools: That's A Wrap.
January 9, 2007... PHOENIX -- Desert Schools FCU has ratchet up its visibility with a new kind of vehicle-30 pint-sized cars wrapped in promotional messages bearing the CU's blue-and-white colors. The tiny Scions, wrapped in adhesive-backed messages by a...

Va. CU Pilots Affordable Housing.
January 9, 2007... ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Shiloh of Alexandria FCU unveiled a new affordable housing program in collaboration with the Virginia Housing Development Agency. The program will allow the $1.2-million community development CU to originate reduced-rate...

FHLB Seattle Resumes Dividends.
January 9, 2007... SEATTLE -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, which has been under a supervisory agreement for the past year, said it will resume paying dividends to members-albeit a small one-for the third quarter. The Seattle Bank, which has been...

Supremes Seen Singing It Again: The highest court is taking on the perennial conflict over whether federal law preempts state law on regulating bank units. Wasn't that case already resolved? Yep.
January 9, 2007... Sometimes cases reviewed by the Supreme Court are more about politics than law. Such is the case with Wachovia v. Watters. The court is deciding whether the Comptroller of the Currency's preemption regulations protect the mortgage units of...

Risk Mitigation: In Para(site) Scams, URL Deceit's Big Business: The 'citibank.com' domain name is available to anybody who wants it, including phishers. Does a free market in domain names provide a common good?
January 9, 2007... Phishing losses are expected to hit $2.8 billion this year, and some security experts are beginning to wonder if Internet-domain-name registrars and resellers are enabling some obvious ruses; specifically, should they traffic in bank-related...

Outlook 2007 Fast Forward: Advisors and program managers alike see challenges ahead, but morale is strong.
January 10, 2007... With the New Year bearing down upon us, the bank-brokerage industry is ramping up for what will hopefully be a good year, but there will be challenges ahead, including a lack of referrals, a dearth of good training, uncertain market conditions...

Depressed Outlook for Program Growth.
January 10, 2007... While three-fourths of program managers want to add Series 7 licensed advisors to their ranks in 2007, the number of banks planning to add advisors has been on a downward slope since 2002, says a Consumer Bankers Association's 2006 Consumer...

Techies.
January 10, 2007... Fiserv also made the following changes: Thomas Warsop joined as group president, financial institutions; Tom Neill was promoted to group president, depository institution core processing; Mike Gantt was promoted to group president, health and...

Card Shopping Trends: Web Starting to Dominate Issuers' Delivery Channels: Credit-card applicants are wanting more than competitive rates and fees. The demand for instant decisioning and online completion is soaring.
January 10, 2007... Gaining site visits and page views from credit-card prospects is no longer half the battle for card issuers. Nearly three in four new credit-card hopefuls now opt to apply via the Internet, a 38-percent increase from recent years....

CEO Sentenced for CU Theft.
January 10, 2007... GRANTSVILLE, Utah -- The former president of Grantsville FCU was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $60,000 in restitution for embezzling an estimated $120,000 from the credit union. Prosecutors said Linda Carson...

Cassidy Takes The Reins At Southwest Corporate FCU.
January 10, 2007... PLANO, Texas -- Southwest Corporate FCU's new CEO is in a unique position to hit the ground running, having been with the $10-billion organization since 1992. John Cassidy, formerly the corporate's chief financial officer, has been tapped...

Poinsettia Bowl Title Sponsorship Brings Recognition.
January 10, 2007... SAN DIEGO -- The second annual San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 19 will pit TCU (Texas Christian University) versus NIU (Northern Illinois University) on the football field, but the most important initials associated with...

Product & Service.
January 10, 2007... Reader Poll Selects CU & MSR APPLETON, Wis.-Community First Credit Union, and MEMBERS Financial Services representative Bill Bargholtz were named "Best of the Valley" in a readers' poll conducted by Appleton's Post-Crescent newspaper....

MasterCard: Ready For Its Closeup: Product placement isn't new, but MasterCard seems to have raised the activity to an art form. Of course, the company also has its fingers in mobisodes, podcasts and Web back stories.
January 10, 2007... Product integration, a form of product placement, is becoming so ubiquitous that marketing messages may now have to be calibrated for their subconscious, as well as their conscious, effect on consumers. Just ask MasterCard. In...

AD Beat: CSB to Small Businesses: 'Yes, We Feel Your Pain': The New England bank wanted the simplicity of its message to translate to small firms: "We understand you and can serve you better than the competition." It found a way.
January 10, 2007... Small businesses often complain that banks don't understand their companies-and don't care about how they produce their products or services. Cambridge Savings Bank's new marketing campaign hopes to assuage those fears by proving that loan...

Trend Watch: One Recruiter's View: Wirehouses are Rolling out the Red Carpet for Big Bank Brokers.
January 11, 2007... Until recently, bank recruiters were chasing wirehouse brokers in a one-way courtship. But the tide is turning. No longer are upper-echelon, mid-career bank advisors seen as the poor relations of the financial services business. They are being...

Broken Promises: What can happen When a bank misrepresents its case to lure brokers away from their practices?
January 11, 2007... In the summer of 2003, a team of three high-powered brokers at Merrill Lynch in Cleveland got an offer they couldn't refuse from Bank of America: Move out to sunny San Diego and become the lynchpin of a bank-based brokerage business in one of...

Read Between the Blanks: Undisclosed Info Abounds: Routine background screening may not give the whole story of a client, vendor or partner. The ability to identify embedded risks is an imperative in today's business environment.
January 11, 2007... Corporate investigator and former FBI special agent Kenneth Springer once heard a loan committee officer defend a $40 million application by a client with 120 lawsuits on file, since there were no liens or judgments. "The pattern here is the...

Mortgage: Platforms Bearing Wholesale Changes: For financial institutions, improving the mortgage channel's visibility and speed can attract more third-party brokers and lay the groundwork for better customer data.
January 11, 2007... The supreme imperative for mortgage lenders in devising wholesale broker relationship strategies is the 80/20 rule. "As a lender, I've got 20 percent of my brokers doing 80 percent of my volume," explains Frank Florence, the CEO of...

Online Security Money Just Can't Buy: How One CU Created Its Own MFA Security In House.
January 11, 2007... EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State FCU may possibly have cornered the market on a multi-factor authentication tool that can save a CU $50,000 per year in user costs-because the credit union created it itself. That tool is "TrulyU," the...

Technology News.
January 11, 2007... Tech Council Examines 'Under-Utilized' Technologies MADISON, Wis.-Calling them both under-utilized technologies, the CUNA Technology Council has authored two white papers exploring radio frequency identification (RFID) and biometrics. ...

Data Security Getting Better All The Time, Experts Say.
January 11, 2007... VANCOUVER, Wash. -- The uproar over online fraud could be a boon to Internet banking, according to one credit union information technology (IT) manager here. Moreover, that's just one of many indicators that information security is getting...

ITems.
January 11, 2007... UltraData Signs Three CUs ATLANTA-Three credit unions are using UltraData Enterprise in an outsourced environment. I.L.W.U. Credit Union in Wilmington, California chose the dedicated hosting option utilizing credit union-owned hardware...

The Opportunists: The banking industry turned in another round of record profits in 2006, but you wouldn't know it by listening to bankers. From a flat yield curve and margin compression to regulatory hassles, most call it one of the toughest years in recent memory. For institutions on USB's All-Star Banking Team, success came in various, often unusual, ways.(Company overview)
January 11, 2007... When Hurricane Katrina blasted the Gulf Coast in late 2005, few banking companies took a harder hit than Hancock Holdings. The parent of Hancock Bank operates more than 100 branches in Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and its home state of...

Warehouse Lending Offers Potential, But Beware the Risks: A very short-term loan that's backed by real estate can be very lucrative if banks understand the risks. The biggest risk? Fraud. And did someone mention fraud?
January 11, 2007... David Frase joined Arlington, TX-based Southwest Securities FSB four months ago as evp with a key objective: making the thrift's warehouse-lending practice a more vibrant one. Currently the business line has $150 million in assets, but he hopes...

Nailing Down The Deal.
January 12, 2007... What can brokers do to insure that a move to a new bank will work out as promised, and not turn into a professional disaster? Danny Sarch, president of Leitner Sarch Consultants, a financial services executive search firm in White Plains, N.Y.,...

From Teller to Top Producer: Huntington's David Merola started at the bottom, but now he's sitting pretty at the head of a team that produces $3 million.
January 12, 2007... It's a rags to riches story any platform rep could aspire to-Huntington Bank's David Merola starts out as a teller, becomes part of an experiment to license branch staff, and a little over a decade later is producing $3 million. Starting out at...

Branch Automation: Helping Customers To Help Themselves: Buoyed by the success of user-driven automated service at airports and supermarkets, firms like Source Technologies and NCR are selling the idea to financial firms.
January 12, 2007... Anywhere from 60 to 85 percent of fliers use automated-check-in at the airport instead of waiting in line to have an airline staffer do it manually. And at grocery stores, as many as a third of customers use some form of electronic check out...

Inside the Outsourcing World of India.
January 12, 2007... Lured by the bench strength of India's technology shops, financial firms such as Goldman Sachs, ING and Fidelity are eyeing new areas of interest in offshoring. With the industry's value expected to hit $64 billion by 2012, how long will...