Banking Wire articles from July 2002

Banking Wire archives from July 2002

BRIEFS.
July 1, 2002... Record Earnings Reported Commercial banks reported earnings of $21.7 billion in the first quarter, with the largest gains coming from large banks, according to the FDIC. Rising net interest income more than offset higher expenses for...

The End of the 1-800 Rigmarole.
July 1, 2002... Dear Colleague: The upside of the 1-800 number is that it has surely saved institutions millions in labor costs. Why pay a U.S.-based customer services representative in Kansas $12.50 an hour when you can pay an English-speaking customer...

SBA: Sterling Bank Breaks Out Unit.
July 1, 2002... Sterling Bank of Houston, a lender focused on owner-operators, has created a separate unit to handle S.B.A. loans, an executive said. The executive, Gilbert Hicks, CEO of Sterling's Almeda office, will lead the S.B.A. department. Hicks...

Lending Strategies: Sunrise Aiming for Full Service.
July 1, 2002... Last month, following the announcement that Sunrise Bank of Arizona would enter the Texas market, Joseph D. Reid, CEO of Sunrise's parent holding company Capitol Bancorp Inc., said there was no state in which the banking company could not...

BANKING BRIEFS.
July 1, 2002... Sky Buys Three Rivers Bancorp Sky Financial Group Inc., an Ohio-based financial holding company, and Pennsylvania-based Three Rivers Bancorp Inc., the holding company for $1 billion-asset Three Rivers Bank, have announced a merger. The...

Merchant Banking: East Boston's 24-hour Service: Bank adds machine to enhance merchant banking.
July 1, 2002... Seeking to capture transaction volume from businesses at the bustling Northshore Mall, one of the largest in Massachusetts, Peabody-based East Boston Savings Bank has invested $70,000 in an automatic merchant banking service. Joanne...

Cash Management: Web-based Wire Transfer Function to Capture Title Firms: 1st Mariner Bank goes live next month.
July 1, 2002... 1st Mariner Bank, the $790 million-asset lender in Baltimore, is adding a wire transfer function next month to its web-based cash management product, a bank executive said. The new function is expected to be especially popular with the...

VENDOR VANE.
July 1, 2002... Banknorth Picks Metavante Banknorth Group has agreed to use EFT and card products from the Metavante Corp. Metavante, which already supplies trust processing services to the bank, will provide ATM management, transaction routing and...

Start Small And Take Time In A Tech-Buyer's Market, Says Analyst.
July 1, 2002... Sometimes the best decision in a buyer's market is not to buy at all, according to one analyst. Steve Olson, senior consultant with Covansys, a Farmington Hills, Mich.- based information technology service, urged credit unions to rethink...

ATMs Equipped With CRM Help Build Relationships.
July 1, 2002... A member walks up to your ATM machine, swipes his card and punches in his PIN. He extracts $100 for the weekend in crisp, clean $20 bills. Upon completion of the transaction, a message flashes across the small digital readout: "You've been...

Now Checks Take On A Whole New Personality-Yours.
July 2, 2002... If you've ever had the desire to put a picture of Spot the dog, Muffy the cat or one of your grandchildren on your check, Clarke American can now make that happen for you. Test-marketed in Texas financial institutions, including San...

Product & Service.
July 2, 2002... BTC Partners With BDG NAPERVILLE, Ill.-Bator Training & Consulting, Inc. (BTC) has developed a strategic partnership with Byington Development Group, Inc. (BDG) to offer sales assessments. The Dave Kurlan Sales Force Profile, designed...

CU Seeks Authority To Offer Sweep Accounts.
July 2, 2002... The Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to issue for comment a request from Evangelical Christian CU, Anaheim, Calif., for an exemption from its broker-dealer licensing requirements in order to offer its members so- called sweep...

Dollar Sees Communities As Source For New CUs.
July 2, 2002... NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar said the trend towards community chartering is extending to new credit unions with the brunt of new charters expected to seek community FOMs. Dollar, speaking at the National Federation of Community Development...

CU Interest Rates On Savings In Free Fall.
July 2, 2002... The free fall in credit union savings rates, which was arrested for several months, began anew with average rates on regular shares, share drafts and money market accounts renewing their plunge to record depths. Data compiled by DataTrac...

ATM Surcharges Soar By 4.8% At Major Banks.
July 2, 2002... The average ATM surcharge at banks and thrifts rose again last year by 4.8%, to $1.32, according to the Federal Reserve's annual report on banking fees. And the charges to non-customers are now almost universal, with 88.5% of all banks and...

People.
July 2, 2002... PEOPLE I Constitution State Corporate Credit Union, Inc., San Diego, Calif., recently elected to its board: Christopher Moran, chair; Robert Aresti, vice chair; George macdonald, treasurer, Larry Holderman, secretary; and Joel Kanuck....

Journal Daily.
July 2, 2002... CU Eyes Low-Income Immigrants SEATTLE-A residential mortgage company specializing in home loans for immigrants has applied to state regulators to charter a new credit union geared towards low-income immigrants from Mexico, Vietnam and...

FOM Update.
July 2, 2002... MobilOil FCU Goes Community BEAUMONT, Texas-MobilOil FCU, a 68-year-old credit union focusing on the energy industry, said it has obtained approval from NCUA to convert to a community charter encompassing 420,000 residents of Jefferson,...

News Briefs.
July 2, 2002... Feds Back Ct. 'Opt-In' Privacy Law WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Federal Trade Commission said in a new legal opinion that the "opt-out" provisions of the Gramm- Leach-Bliley Act do not preempt the tougher "opt-in" provisions of the Connecticut...

Truliant FCU Turns To Web-Based Procurement System.
July 3, 2002... With $800 million in assets at 21 branches, Truliant Federal Credit Union's one-person purchasing department couldn't hold out any longer, automating its manual purchasing processes earlier this month. Truliant's new web-based procurement...

Digital Dialogue Touts 24/7 System For Small CUs.
July 3, 2002... Digital Dialogue, an Internet and telephone technologies company in Auburn Hills, is putting 24/7 loan service within reach of small credit unions -even those without computer access. Using the latest advancements in technology, the Auburn...

How To Capitalize On Staff's Strengths, Weaknesses.
July 3, 2002... According to one person, every credit union in the country employs the same four people: the director, the influencer, the stabilizer and the conscientious. It's your job to recognize which one you are and how to capitalize on the...

News Briefs: Study: CUSO Offerings To Expand.
July 3, 2002... Look for Credit Union Service Organizations (CUSOs) to continue to press into more broad-based partnerships offering even greater services in the near future. Analysis assembled as part of Callahan & Associates' 2002 National Guide to...

Worth Noting.
July 3, 2002... CUNA's E-Scan Shipping This Week MADISON, Wis.-The latest edition of the Credit Union Environmental Scan (E- Scan will begin shipping June 28 and has several new features including a snapshot of upcoming hot topics CUs must address, guides...

Community Page.
July 3, 2002... MCCU Awards Employee $1,000 NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Matadors Community Credit Union and California State University present Susan Scott with the employee of the year award and check for $1,000. CVFCU To Open New Facility Coosa Valley...

Police Blotter.
July 3, 2002... Cell-Phone Bandit Hits CU KANSAS CITY, Mo.-A man talking on a cell phone in the teller line at CommunityAmerica CU ended his conversation to hand the teller a note demanding cash and a blue-zippered bag to carry it in. The suspect then...

Senators Bank on CU Service.
July 3, 2002... WASHINGTON, D.C.-The convenience of an in-building branch has apparently made U.S. Senate FCU the most popular provider of financial services for U.S. senators. Financial disclosures reviewed by The Credit Union Journal show that 29 senators...

Board Ouster Came Down To Numbers.
July 3, 2002... The unprecedented recall of the five directors at U.S. Senate FCU came down to three numbers: 30,000, 200, and 173. The 30,000 is the number of members at the $240 million credit union; 200 is the number of signatures required on a...

Leave It To Beaver Star At CU's Event.
July 7, 2002... PHILADELPHIA -- Jerry Mathers, who starred as a child as Beaver Cleaver in the hit TV series Leave it to Beaver, turns 60 this year, which is why he was on hand at American Heritage FCUs Member Appreciation Day. The $690-million credit union is...

Valley 1st Struggles To Help Financially Troubled Seniors.
July 7, 2002... PITTSBURGH -- In the small, former steel mill town of Monessen, Penn., 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, Jim Ritter, CEO of Valley 1st Community FCU, is seeing some of the toughest economic conditions in the nine years hes run the credit union....

CUJ Snapshot.
July 7, 2002... PITTSBURGH -- Credit Union Journal asked CUs at the Pennsylvania CU Associations annual meeting, How is the economy affecting your members? Carol Ann Stevens, CEO of the $17-million Altoona Regional Health System FCU, Altoona, Penn. ...

IRS Reports Economic Stimulus Check Scams.
July 7, 2002... WASHINGTON -- Economic stimulus checks have begun showing up in mailboxes, and the IRS has issued an alert that scam artists are actively making the rounds using the proposed rebates as bait. Among the scams: Rebate Phone CallSomeone...

Serlo Announces Policy Change For Vendors.
July 7, 2002... SAN DIEGO -- PSCU Financial Services has announced a new policy in which any credit union with 24 months or less remaining on a contract with another vendor can sign a letter of intent to move that program over to the cooperative and gain the...

Short-Lived Recession On The Horizon, Visa Exec Says.
July 7, 2002... SAN DIEGO -- Wayne Best, senior VP of Business Research and Reporting, with Visa, said that the rise in unemployment rates signal a recession, but we expect it to be of short duration, and end this summer. Gas prices are expected to...

Focus On Overall Revenue For Both Credit & Debit.
July 7, 2002... SAN DIEGO -- When it comes to credit and debit programs, credit unions should focus more on overall revenue and not try to determine which platform will be most popular with members, according to Ron Silvia, director of debit services with PSCU...

Technology, Convenience & Personalization Up Loyalty.
July 7, 2002... SAN DIEGO -- There are a number of strategies available to CUs to cardholder loyalty, according to Kent Potterton of PSCU Financial Services. Among the strategies Potteron suggested to attendees at the CUSOs annual Member Forum here:...

Rewards Points Increasingly Needed To Drive Loyalty.
July 7, 2002... SAN DIEGO -- Member loyalty is nice to talk about but increasingly those same loyal members expect to be rewarded. To that end PSCU Financial Services is extolling the benefits of its PSCU Member Loyalty Rewards Solution. In remarks before...

You've Got a Lesson To Learn.
July 7, 2002... ORLANDO, Fla. -- Theres been a tremendous power shift and the more quickly credit unions can adapt to that shift, the better off they will be. We have moved from caveat emptor to caveat venditor, said Neil Goldman of Member Research during...

'Overwhelming Response' To Ohio CU's Intro Of Check Images.
July 8, 2002... Nationwide FCU is reporting that members have use a new electronic service offering check images. " We had an overwhelming response from members with 1,500 new web banking users in the few months following our e-mail announcement," said...

Technology News.
July 8, 2002... Anheuser-Busch Chooses Maxxar ST. LOUIS-The $550-million Anheuser-Busch Employees Credit Union has selected Maxxar's Transcend Automated Call Distributor (ACD) to guide its call center agents during calls from members. The credit union...

Cash Dispensers Used To Cut Member Time, Teller Costs.
July 8, 2002... These days, it's a rare technology that actually saves time, offers financial advantages and improves safety and security. Rarer still is one that does all three without a glitch, hitch or downtime. Rick Hoffman believes he has found just such...

Using Technology To Achieve Ideal Level Of Reserves.
July 8, 2002... The hullabaloo created by the proposals for adequate reserve regulations under the newly postponed Basel Accord on Capital Adequacy (Basel II). Technology proposal has created an explosion in guesswork about how increased automation...

Crowded House: Joint Online Mortgage Venture Grows.
July 8, 2002... Online mortgage loan origination technology is giving the credit union community ground to stand on, thanks in part to Prime Alliance. A year ago, Minneapolis-based Dexma, a provider of online mortgage infrastructures, and $4.2-billion...

How 1 CU Has Bulletproofed Its Network Access Risk.
July 8, 2002... PINS, passwords and hardware tokens-anything less in remote access security and the credit union network is a sitting duck, according to Mark Davis assistant vice president of Data Center Operations at State Employees' Credit Union (SECU)...

Six Research Notes Are Added.
July 8, 2002... CUNA and the consulting firm the TowerGroup have added six new Research Notes to its Credit Union Technology Advisory Centre (CUTAC), bringing to 16 the titles that are available. The new Research Notes are: * Loan Decisioning Systems...

WesCorp Changes To .Coop.
July 8, 2002... Western Corporate FCU (WesCorp) has changed the domain extension of its website addresses from .org to .coop. WesCorp's new Web address is www.wescorp.coop, and the address of its broker-dealer, WesCorp Investment Services LLC, is...

People.
July 8, 2002... VENDOR Corporate One, Columbus, Ohio, elected to its board Gerald D. Guy, Stephen F. Halas, and Janice L. Thomas. The Co-op Network, Orange, Calif., recently elected to its board: Tom Sargent, chair; Laurie Stewart, vice chair; John...

Journal Daily.
July 8, 2002... Fugitive Pleads Guilty To CU Fraud ALBANY, N.Y.-A 35-year-old man who fled to Mexico in 1992 rather than face fraud charges in the U.S., pleaded guilty to receiving $52,000 from Navy FCU by lying on four car loan applications in 1990 and...

What Winners Want.
July 9, 2002... Good service keeps business owners from shifting assets to banks, despite strong DDA relationships The S.B.A.'s latest crop of small business Advocates of the Year, announced last month, may be winners in the eyes of the government. ...

BRIEFS.
July 9, 2002... Record Earnings Reported Commercial banks reported earnings of $21.7 billion in the first quarter, with the largest gains coming from large banks, according to the FDIC. Rising net interest income more than offset higher expenses for...

The End of the 1-800 Rigmarole.
July 9, 2002... Dear Colleague: The upside of the 1-800 number is that it has surely saved institutions millions in labor costs. Why pay a U.S.-based customer services representative in Kansas $12.50 an hour when you can pay an English-speaking customer...

SBA: Sterling Bank Breaks Out Unit.
July 9, 2002... Sterling Bank of Houston, a lender focused on owner-operators, has created a separate unit to handle S.B.A. loans, an executive said. The executive, Gilbert Hicks, CEO of Sterling's Almeda office, will lead the S.B.A. department. Hicks...

Lending Strategies: Sunrise Aiming for Full Service.
July 9, 2002... Last month, following the announcement that Sunrise Bank of Arizona would enter the Texas market, Joseph D. Reid, CEO of Sunrise's parent holding company Capitol Bancorp Inc., said there was no state in which the banking company could not...

For Many, Recruiting Volunteers Becoming Real Challenge.
July 9, 2002... Credit unions are reporting increasing difficulties in attracting and retaining candidates for their boards of directors, as competition intensifies for volunteer panels for all kinds of organizations. As a result, fewer and fewer credit...

Vacation Vocation: How Some CUs Handle Requests For Time Off During The Summer.
July 9, 2002... It's summertime. The time when most employees-especially those with children-opt to take their vacations. But vacation time can be headache time if not scheduled properly or when many employees want to take the same time off. How do credit...

Court Puts Temporary Halt On Calif. Card Disclosure Law.
July 9, 2002... A federal court here granted a request by NAFCU and several banking organizations to halt enforcement of the state's burdensome new credit card disclosure law while the groups try to persuade the court to strike down the law. The court...

BANKING BRIEFS.
July 9, 2002... Sky Buys Three Rivers Bancorp Sky Financial Group Inc., an Ohio-based financial holding company, and Pennsylvania-based Three Rivers Bancorp Inc., the holding company for $1 billion-asset Three Rivers Bank, have announced a merger. The...

VENDOR VANE.
July 9, 2002... Banknorth Picks Metavante Banknorth Group has agreed to use EFT and card products from the Metavante Corp. Metavante, which already supplies trust processing services to the bank, will provide ATM management, transaction routing and...

True Or False?: Analysts Test Knowledge Of Member Profitability.
July 10, 2002... Think you have pretty good understanding into member profitability and your credit union's bottom line? Then answer true or false to the following questions: * Higher cross-sale ratios always lead to greater profitability. * To...

ON DEADLINE.
July 10, 2002... Large FOMs Approved JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.- State regulators have given final approval to Educational Employees CU, Bridgeton, for the largest FOM ever granted a state charter here. The action will allow the credit union, now called...

Key Figure In RISDIC Is Paroled After 10 Years.
July 10, 2002... Joseph Mollicone, the former bank president whose embezzlement brought down the Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corp. (RISDIC) and created a crisis that brought about the elimination of nearly every other private deposit insurance...

CUNA Mutual, APPRO To Offer Call Center Service.
July 10, 2002... CUNA Mutual Group and APPRO Systems, Inc., said they have reached an agreement to form a new company to supply lending call center services for the credit union marketplace. The company will combine CUNA Mutual's LOANLINER forms and...

Alternative ATM PIN For Security Proposed In Ill.
July 10, 2002... A bill introduced in the state legislature would enhance ATM security by requiring ATM cardholders to have an alternative PIN-personal identification number. An alternative PIN-typically the cardholders regular PIN in reverse order-would...

Rates On Student Loans Fall To An Historical Low.
July 10, 2002... Interest rates on federally guaranteed student loan fell last week to their lowest rates since the start of the program. New federal Stafford Loans issued between July 1, 2002 and June 30, 2003 receive an unprecedented rate of just 4.06%...

Lech Walesa Offers Encouragement To World's CUs.
July 10, 2002... Lech Walesa, the former Solidarity trade union leader who became Poland's first democratically elected president, told credit unions gathered here that they how credit unions fit into his ideals for pluralism, open borders and the...

Worth Noting.
July 10, 2002... Miles To Rejoin Virginia League LYNCHBURG, Va.-David Miles, president Virginia Corporate FCU, said he will leave that position in order to rejoin the Virginia CU League as its senior VP-credit union development. Mills will oversee...

Attention Shoppers: Making In-Store Branches Work.
July 10, 2002... Some published reports have claimed that in-store branches have been a disappointment. Having worked with more than 300 financial institutions that have placed branches inside 100 different retailers, I'd be the first to agree that in- store...

Top 10 CU Mortgage Lenders See Big First Quarter Jump.
July 10, 2002... The nation's top 10 credit union mortgage lenders had a huge first quarter this year, doubling their volumes from the same quarter last year. According to data from the National Credit Union Administration, the top 10 lenders as ranked...

Conference Spurs CU Interest Among Native-Americans.
July 11, 2002... A recent conference to promote the advantages of credit unions in sovereign nations has triggered the interest of several tribal leaders, according to Chester Carl, chair of the National American Indian Housing Council. Carl said the...

Product & Service.
July 11, 2002... CIA Marks Its 25th Anniversary SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif.- Counter Intelligence Associates, a provider of training and development resources, is marking its 25th anniversary. According to CEO Diane Johnson and President Tom Glatt, the...

You Have A Brand-Whether You Mean To Or Not.
July 11, 2002... Every credit union has a brand that is integrated across all channels whether they realize it or not- and that's the danger. "Branding is not an option. A brand is the good, the bad and the ugly of your credit union," according to Deborah...

When Brands Go Awry.
July 11, 2002... Even the most well-known of companies with the strongest of brands can sometimes go awry. Case in point: Harley-Davidson. A Harley-Davidson sends a clear message, noted CUNA Mutual Group's Deborah Watterson. It is a motorcycle some dream...

On Rankings and Ratios.
July 11, 2002... We received U.S. Banker's May 2002 issue ("Performance Rankings of the 100 Largest U.S. Banking Companies," p. 30). To our surprise, we noted that W Holding Company, Inc., was prominently quoted with the worst capital ratio: 4.17%. Our...

Not Your GrandFather's U.S. Banker: The new USB will have analysis of the financial players, trends and innovations driving growth and profits. Or not.
July 11, 2002... If change is the only constant in life, then financial players- particularly bankers-should be fleet of foot and ready for whatever comes their way. So, too, should U.S. Banker, the magazine of record for the banking and financial services...

Citigroup Redraws the Battle Lines Across the Golden State.
July 11, 2002... California is the sixth-biggest economy in the world-all by itself. It's the most populous state in the union. It's amazing it took Sandy Weill so long to plant his flag there. With his firm's purchase of Golden State Bancorp, analysts say...

E*Banking: A Better Peek at the Competition Yodlee Allows FIs to Raid Each Other's Customers.
July 11, 2002... Account aggregation is finally getting somewhere. Yodlee's latest offering allows banks to segment aggregated customer data for targeted marketing initiatives. It's supposed to save bundles by replacing costly mass marketing, creating more...

ReseArch: Buttoning Down Strategy "Risk and Resilience" Report Isolates Trends.
July 11, 2002... It's little wonder that many banks and other financial institutions feel somewhat exposed these days. "Recession aftershocks, huge new risks, pervasive uncertainty"-these are the challenges defining today's business environment, according to a...

News: E*Trade's Jedi is Singing the Blues Capacity Woes Have the on-line Broker Facing Class Action Litigation.
July 11, 2002... Project Jedi was supposed to prevent just the kind of thing that befell Truc Hoang-three times. And her tale of woe is a warning for brokers to make sure they have the capacity to handle high on-line trading volume-or take their chances in...

Credit Card Uses Payroll Deduction For Payments.
July 12, 2002... E-Duction, an electronic payments firm, has introduced a credit card that allows users to finance purchases through payroll deduction-a service it is marketing as "a free employee benefit," which ought to sound familiar to credit unions....

CUs Won't Shed Tears As Two Lawmakers Depart.
July 12, 2002... This is the tale of two lawmakers on their way out the door and of their relationships with the credit union movement. One, a tall, gregarious Texan, who seemingly lost his enthusiasm for the legislative process after his party lost...

Wheat Sought Job At U.S. Central After NCUA.
July 12, 2002... As her time at NCUA came to a close, former board member Yolanda Wheat was discussing a job with U.S. Central CU, near the Kansas City home she and her family moved to last summer, several sources have confirmed to The Credit Union Journal....

People.
July 12, 2002... PEOPLE V The Texas Credit Union League, Dallas, elected to its board: Bob peterson, chair; Curtis Collins, vice chair; Kerry parker, secretary; and Larry Long, treasurer. Elected to the Credit Union Resources, Inc. board are: Anne...

BOFA shareholders take lead in growing revolt over payouts.
July 12, 2002... While hardly walking away poor, some executives forced to pull the rip cords on their golden parachutes will find the landing less plush than they thought. Unhappy shareholders are pushing reductions in gaudy severance agreements at a...