Banking Wire articles from June 2004

Banking Wire archives from June 2004

New Georgia Law Seeks To Shut Down Payday Lenders.
June 1, 2004... Georgia's governor, Sonny Perdue, has signed into law legislation that shuts down payday lenders and turns the practice into a felony. The law had been supported by the Georgia Credit Union Association. Under the new law, payday lending...

Iowa League Wins Award For Response To Attacks.
June 1, 2004... The Iowa Credit Union League has won a first place PRIME award for a crisis communications strategy it used to respond to bank attacks. Presented by the Central Iowa Chapter of the Public Relations Institute, the league was recognized for...

Matz Stresses Service To Defend CU Tax Exemption.
June 1, 2004... In remarks here last week, NCUA board member Debbie Matz challenged CU leaders to "reach everyone in this diverse community and become the standard by which other credit unions are judged." Speaking to 130 members of the Metropolitan Area...

Fake CU Newspaper Ad Scam Continues To Spread.
June 1, 2004... North Carolina has become the latest state in which the bogus "Heartland Credit Union" is advertising its scam offer. A similar scam has been attempted in at least 13 other states. The Daily Record here was contacted by parties...

Community Page.
June 1, 2004... CU Named One Of The Best Company SPOKANE, Wash.-Washington CEO magazine selected Spokane Teachers Credit Union as One of the Best Companies to Work For. Va. CUs Donate $1 Million In 2003 LYNCHBURG, Va.-Virginia's 226 credit unions...

The CU Journal Daily.
June 1, 2004... Virginia CU Giant Charts New Way VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.-Chartway FCU, based here, is expanding into Pinellas County, Fla., with the opening of two new branches. The credit union has had a presence in the St. Petersburg market for the past five...

Community Page.
June 1, 2004... Wescom CU Provides Scholarships PASADENA, Calif.-Wescom Credit Union awarded 25 scholarships to local high school students to attend Hispanas Organized for Political Equality Latina History Day Conference. In addition to providing...

Management Label: Senior Execs Hit The Bottle-For A Cause.
June 1, 2004... US Federal Credit Union quenched its thirst to support its favorite charity last month in a clever campaign featuring 11 senior managers and some H2O. As part of its annual fundraiser for Minnesota FoodShare, the credit union sold $1,551...

Companies In 3-D Partnership To Boost Loans, Sales.
June 1, 2004... Three companies have entered into a joint solution to offer a product they say helps to not just increase lending but eliminate much of the erosion of point-of-sale sales opportunities. Lending Solutions here has entered into a partnership...

Product & Service.
June 1, 2004... Inficorp Acquires 5 Portfolios... ATLANTA-InfiCorp Holdings, Inc., said it has purchased $22 million in credit card loans from five credit unions, and signed long-term marketing alliances with each. The company bought portfolios from:...

League CEO Also CUNA Chair? No Violation of Renewal, Says Ensweiler.
June 2, 2004... When Dick Ensweiler ascended to the chairmanship of the CUNA board, there wasn't much hubbub, despite the fact that he would become the first league president at CUNA's helm since the days before the Renewal Project, which was designed to wrest...

Product & Service.
June 2, 2004... Corporate Central Joins BLG HALES CORNER, Wis.-Corporate Central Credit Union here has joined with Business Lending Group, Appleton, Wis., to provide business services to Corporate Central's member credit unions. BLG is a CUSO that...

WOCCU's Ito Joins Calif. League.
June 2, 2004... Lucy Ito, who has been with the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) for the past 14 years, will join the California league effective May 3. Ito will take over as VP and is to "provide strategic leadership to the league's research and...

Benson Named EVP By EPL.
June 2, 2004... Wayne Benson, known to many in credit unions for his career at CUNA Mutual Group in Madison, Wis., has been named chief marketing officer/executive VP by EPL, the credit union-owned data processor here. Benson spent 23 years as chief officer of...

Missouri CUL, Barbados Partner.
June 2, 2004... The Missouri CU Association (MCUA) and the World Council of CUs Inc. (WOCCU) have entered into an agreement to provide assistance and leadership to the Barbados CU League. According to the MCUA, Barbados' 39 credit unions have the third-highest...

Ukrainian CU Visitors Hosted.
June 2, 2004... Mid-States Corporate FCU, U.S. Central, Self-Reliance Ukrainian American FCU of Chicago (SUAFCU) and the Illinois Credit Union System (ICUS) met with two representatives from the Ukrainian Credit Union System. Petro Kozynets, president of the...

Kenyon To Board Of Mngt. School.
June 2, 2004... Tracie G. Kenyon, president and CEO of the Montana Credit Union Network has been named to the board of trustees of Western CUNA Management School. "Tracie's career experience, and her dedication to political advocacy and to bringing...

Macquee Finalists Are Named.
June 2, 2004... The Marketing Association of Credit Unions (MAC) has announced the five finalists for its Best of Show MACQUEE Award. From a pool of 350 entries the five finalists are: Alabama Credit Union, Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Energy First Credit Union, Monterey...

On Deadline.
June 2, 2004... Truliant FCU Offering Trusts WINSTON SALEM, N.C.-Truliant FCU has begun offering trust services through Members Trust Co., the Tampa-based CUSO owned by Suncoast Schools CU and CUNA Mutual Group. Among the other services to be offered are...

Don't Downplay The Risk, CFOs Are Told.
June 2, 2004... What effect will the inevitable rise in interest rates have on credit union balance sheets? As would be expected, that was a hot topic when chief financial officers meet here last week for the CUNA CFO Council's annul meeting. The answer,...

A Seat Behind The President.
June 3, 2004... Chip Coenen, Community First CU VP of Business Development, got even better than a front row seat during a visit by President George Bush to his community last Tuesday. Coenen was among a handful of business leaders chosen by the Fox...

CEO Gets Turn On The Wh__l.
June 3, 2004... Portland Forge Employees CU CEO Janet Bantz spun her way to big money-and local celebritydom-for her appearance on the nationally televised game show, Wheel of Fortune. The program showed the enthusiastic player spinning the wheel and...

Product & Service.
June 3, 2004... Two Corporates Select OSI GLASTONBURY, Conn.-Two corporate credit unions have selected a cash-management solution from Open Solutions Inc.'s e-Solutions Group business unit. The $4.2-billion Southeast Corporate FCU, Tallahassee, Fla. and...

Billion-Dollar CUs Hold 29.3% Of Total Assets.
June 3, 2004... The days when having a billion dollars in assets meant you were in exclusive company among credit unions are over. Eleven more credit unions crossed the billion-dollar asset threshold during 2003, bringing the total number to 83 at year-end....

Community Page.
June 3, 2004... NSCFCU Honored By Neighborhood LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Arkansas credit unions raised $61,243 for the Children's Miracle Network and Arkansas Children's Hospital. Arkansas FCU made the single largest donation ($23,000) of the 33 participating...

CUs Meet With SF Fed Officials.
June 3, 2004... Seeking to expand awareness of the scope of credit unions, the Credit Union Economics Group (CUEG) met here with representatives of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Representing the Fed were President Robert Parry, and 12th Federal...

i3 Names 26 Rising CU Execs.
June 3, 2004... The Filene Research Institute and the Center for Credit Union Innovation have chosen 26 people it has identified as "rising credit union executives" to serve as inaugural members of a new group called i3 dedicated to stimulating the development...

$350K In TAG Grants Available.
June 3, 2004... NCUA announced funds were available for three new technical assistance grant programs, noting that $350,000 in TAGs are now on the table for low-income designated credit unions in the areas of financial education assistance, homeownership...

NCUA, Corporates Weigh Responses.
June 3, 2004... NCUA reported its Office of Corporate CUs was monitoring the ACH outage at U.S. Central last week, but was unprepared to discuss the safety and soundness issues that may be called into question by the series of events that left to 2,200 credit...

On Deadline.
June 3, 2004... CUNA Mutual Makes Last Offer MADISON, Wis.-CUNA Mutual Group has made its "last, best offer" to its 1,400 employees who are members of the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 39 following the expiration of the...

Slowing Mortgages Will Leave Big Hole.
June 4, 2004... Rising rates will muffle the boom in the mortgage market. What will that mean for credit unions? First, they'll continue to ride the wave just a little bit longer. "Credit unions are actually seeing a little bit of a pick-up in mortgage...

Wanted: More Apostle-Members: Analyst Divides Members Into Four Groups, Offers Strategies For Each.
June 4, 2004... How many of your members are also "apostles?" Turning members into apostles should be the goal of every credit union, according to one person, who called such apostle-members "priceless." Tony Alessandra, author of several books on...

Acquisitions Make Metavante Significant Player.
June 4, 2004... The bidding for First Data Corp.'s NYCE, the second-largest electronic funds transfer network in the country, appeared last week to be won by Metavante Corp., capping off a month of corporate acquisitions that launched the company into the big...

Study Refutes Common Assumption That Members More Affluent Than Customers.
June 4, 2004... Despite frequent banking industry claims to the contrary, bank customers have higher incomes and greater wealth than credit union members, according to new analysis of Federal Reserve Board data. In the third edition of a study entitled,...

Profitable Listenin.
June 4, 2004... One of the privileges of my job is being invited to attend conferences and meetings where prominent people speak about timely and interesting issues. Of course, as anyone who has ever attended a business conference knows, attendees often wade...

Brokerage Operations Still Not Doing Much for Banks' Bottom Lines.
June 4, 2004... Are banks leveraging their brokerage and insurance operations? Not fully, say many bank analysts. "Overall, these operations are still pretty much run separately, not as part of the main retail bank strategy," said Craig Woker, an analyst...

Nuts in New Haven? Well, Fiery to Say the Least.: The influence and respect she commanded at her previous post with Dime Savings Bank would be put to the test by the people of New Haven, including its mayor.
June 4, 2004... When NewAlliance CEO Peyton Patterson walked into the studio for a photo shoot on September 5, 2003, you would have never known the fight she was waging back in New Haven, CT. Of course, that was before NewAlliance ever existed. Patterson...

Consumer Banking: Drive Away with a Loan!: Auto shops (quietly) expand their businesses.
June 4, 2004... Toyota and General Motors are among a growing number of auto manufacturers setting up banks in the U.S. to expand their finance arms. Both have filed industrial bank charters. Pending the outcome, that would allow them almost everything a...

Payments: EU Growth Beckons Tech Firms: Credit card, remittance companies line up.
June 4, 2004... A collective yawn was stifled across the Western European banking sector last month when the 15-member European Union added 10 states and 75 million consumers, mostly from the former Eastern Bloc, to its growing girth. But not payments firms,...

Compensation: Banks Aim To Stem Huge Losses: Waste claims up to eight percent of incentive pay.
June 4, 2004... Firms are losing lots of money because incentive payments like bonuses and commissions are being calculated inaccurately by antiquated spreadsheets and old compensation models. A growing number are turning to technology that's popular in the...

On Deadline.
June 7, 2004... Thrice-Robbed Branch To Close For 90 Days MARINA, Calif.-Central Coast FCU has decided to close for 90 days a branch here that has been robbed three times in the last four months. Bruce Adams, CEO of Seaside, Calif.-base Central Coast,...

CUNA Suspects Banks Behind Two Solicitation Efforts.
June 7, 2004... CUNA last week was urging credit unions to be cautious about two solicitation efforts the trade group believes bankers are quietly behind. In the first, credit unions around the country were receiving identical postcards from an address in...

Does Your Branch Need A Makover?
June 7, 2004... Do you have a branch or facility sorely in need of a visual improvement? Do you wish a team of contractors and workers would just arrive one day and rebuild your facility? Well, The Credit Union Journal can't arrange that, but we have arranged...

Same-Sex Marriages In Mass. Raise Issues For Other States.
June 7, 2004... SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass.-The legalization of same-sex marriages in this state means that credit unions must now be prepared to deal with a new set of spouses. But what it means to credit unions in other states remains very much a "gray area,"...

NASD Set to Tighten VA Rules.
June 7, 2004... The National Association of Securities Dealers has proposed a rule that would tighten suitability, disclosure and supervision requirements in the area of variable annuity sales. The regulator said the proposal codifies best-practice...

Product News.
June 7, 2004... Barclays Global Investors plans to launch nine iShares ETFs based on Morningstar's style-based indexes. The ETFs will cover value, growth and core categories in small, mid and large cap. (800) 474-2737 or www.ishares.com. Standard & Poor's...

Technology: One Man's Trash Is...: Dumpster-diving for disk drives raises eyebrows.
June 7, 2004... Between Washington Mutual getting blackmailed after selling computers with sensitive information and now another firm's ATM disk drives showing up on eBay, banks might need to think harder about how they trash their computers. Properly...

Hits and Has-Beens.
June 7, 2004... Sandra E. Bell has been named evp and CFO of $73 billion Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati. She was previously managing director of Deutsche Bank Securities in New York for over 12 years. Roger Plemens has been promoted to president and...

Cash Management: Securing The Middle Market: With Microsoft, Bank One writes the book.
June 7, 2004... Plenty has been written about how banks ignore small businesses, obsessed as they are with keeping the biggest corporate clients happy, even though demands for better pricing of cash management services makes these big accounts less profitable....

If You Want Customers To Stay, Don't Charge For Bill Pay.
June 7, 2004... The adage "the best things in life are free" couldn't apply more than for bankers toying with reinstating fees-eventually-for on-line bill payment. While many banks presently do not charge customers for on-line bill payment in a bid to...

Tools and Resources.
June 8, 2004... IFS Jobs has launched an employment Web site targeting the insurance and financial services industry. It offers a search function, job posting, automated e-mail alerts, salary surveys and information on industry trends. (972) 293-5111 or...

Specialize, Specialize, Specialize: Outspoken industry observer and hedge fund operator Tom Brown says a targeted focus is key to success.
June 8, 2004... Are banks really embracing the brokerage side of their business, or are they just talking a good game? Tom Brown, industry observer and CEO of Second Curve Capital, a hedge fund that invests exclusively in financial services firms, says the...

Determining Roi: Rise Of The Phantom Branch: Wells Fargo uses branch simulation to determine when cash-dispenser deployment makes sense.
June 8, 2004... Wells Fargo saved nearly $3 million on a recent cash dispenser deployment project, largely because it predicted how the dispensers would perform and how many would actually be needed before deployment-without much of the piloting methods...

Security: Risk Of Improper Disposal Of Computer Trash Grows: Wamu found out the hard way that special care is necessary when discarding software and hardware.
June 8, 2004... Between Washington Mutual getting blackmailed after selling computers with sensitive information and now another firm's ATM disk drive showing up on eBay, banks might need to think harder about how they trash their computers. Properly...

The CUJ Daily.
June 8, 2004... Senate Funds Siphoned To CU WILMINGTON, Del.-A former treasurer for U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden's reelection campaign pleaded guilty to stealing almost $400,000 from the Delaware Democrat's campaign treasury and laundering some of it to his...

ON DEADLINE.
June 8, 2004... S2 Systems Signs USAlliance RYE, N.Y.-USAlliance FCU said it has contracted with S2 Systems, Inc., to implement the company's OpeN payments processing solution. The $520-million credit union will be deploying S2's OpeN/2 engine...

Board Narrowly Survives Recall Effort At Columbia CU: Plan To Convert To Bank Is Dropped, But Critics To Press On.
June 8, 2004... The embattled board of Columbia CU, on trial for its failed bid to convert the credit union to a bank, narrowly survived a member revolt last week. The eight directors up for recall in the rare member initiative retained their seats by...

Several Factors Are Ringing Alarms For Insurance Providers.
June 8, 2004... A combination of economic factors, more expansive fields of membership and the increasing sophistication of products and services credit unions offer are creating some disturbing insurance trends as well as some new opportunities, according to...

Shareholder Activism: Fifth Third Bank Makes It Tough for Social Advocates: Discrimination based on sexual orientation at issue.
June 8, 2004... Fifth Third Bancorp faced a proxy vote in its annual meeting this year that small and mid-tier banks would be wise to heed. A proposal from Boston's NorthStar Asset Management called for a bank policy that prohibits discrimination based on...

Pipeline.
June 8, 2004... Fewer Paper Cuts A number of banks, including Bank of America, Bank One, PNC Bank, JPMorgan Chase and National City Bank, have been using virtual data rooms to facilitate mergers and acquisitions of investment banking clients. The company...

With Replacement Delayed, Dollar To Resign From NCUA.
June 9, 2004... NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar decided last week he couldn't wait any longer for the White Hose to appoint a successor and announced he will leave the NCUA Board April 30. Dollar said the resignation will enable him to pursue certain jobs,...

Payday Lenders On Offensive Against CUs.
June 9, 2004... Under attack from community groups and forced to the sidelines by some state legislatures and banking regulators, payday lenders are going on the offensive. The industry's largest trade group has hired a well-known crisis management firm,...

On Deadline.
June 9, 2004... Kerry Says He Favors CU Tax Exemption WASHINGTON-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has sent a letter to CUNA supporting the CU tax exemption. "Credit unions' focus on member service means that your organization...

Question For New York CUs: For Whom The Toll Bills?
June 9, 2004... Credit unions in New York are being hit with a new invoice: from Canada. And despite the fact New York's CUs have tried to help boost revenue for the country, efforts to resolve the problem have gone nowhere. At issue is a system...

Going Investment Shopping: What kind of investment service do banks provide for the average Jane? BIC sent a "mystery shopper" to find out.
June 9, 2004... If you ever wondered how other bank programs handle investment prospects, let me give you the frontline view. Using the alias Leigh Graham, I went bank investment service shopping recently in Memphis, Tenn. The story I presented unwitting...

Giving a Big Bank a Small-Town Touch: How Charles Lewis turns Waco into Wells Fargo country.
June 9, 2004... Can a bank investment consultant make a large bank feel like a community bank? Charles Lewis, a senior vice president and private client manager at Wells Fargo Investments LLC in Waco, Texas, says that he helps make the transformation happen by...

Mergers: BNP Paribas' Global Soiree has a Local Feel: A French banking giant comes calling stateside.
June 9, 2004... If the new F-word is 'French,' then the U.S. retail banking industry has grown noticeably potty-mouthed these past few months. In March, BNP Paribas, the largest bank in France and the ninth largest in the world, announced that it would...

...Next We'll Be Talking About Pyongyang's Great Golfing.
June 9, 2004... To the uninitiated, which is much of the outside world, North Korea is an alien place-scary with the bomb, or a crazy house where the Dear Leader takes cues for his hairstyle from The King, or some fevered, hardly imaginable combination. ...

Mergers & Acquisitions: 'Virtual Data Rooms' Speed Up Deals: Digitizing deal data is proving a good way to reduce the time and expense of completing due diligence.
June 9, 2004... Major investment banks including the likes of Bank of America, PNC Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Suntrust and National City are shaving up to a month of due diligence on mergers and acquisitions by turning piles of data sheets into electronic files....

Gadgets: New Squawk Egg Tracks The Dow Jones Average: The Ambient Orb turns color based on the market performance, one of its many uses.
June 9, 2004... People hungry for stock market information have tried just about everything to track how the market's doing at any given moment-looking at the pony express, flag signals, telegraphs, tickers and the mayor's own self-titled financial data and...

Northwest CU Launches 'Wings' Brand.
June 10, 2004... APPLE VALLEY, Minn.-NWA Federal Credit Union has created a new division-Wings Financial FCU-to reach out to all airline employees under the TIPS charter it received in December. The move was not precipitated by NWAFCU's trademark dispute...

Worth Noting.
June 10, 2004... Anthrax-Affected CU Returns WASHINGTON D.C.-Nearly two-and-one-half years after being forced out of its offices due to the risk of exposure to anthrax, $20-million Washington Postal Employees FCU has returned to its former quarters in the...

Board Recall Isn't The Real Lesson From Columbia CU.
June 10, 2004... We're guessin' that in all that decades-long talk by the banking industry about "leveling the playing field" that they didn't have in mind the kind of meeting that took place among the members of Columbia Credit Union last week. Somewhat...

The Minority (Marketing) Report: It Isn't Enough To Know That Various Minority Groups Belong To Your Credit Union. It's Necessary To Know The Groups Within The Groups If You Want To Succeed.
June 10, 2004... The 2000 U.S. Census has revealed that Asian and Hispanic populations are growing at incredible rates. Their purchasing power has also grown. The University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth estimates that Hispanic buying power will...

Grabbing Your Piece Of The Small Business Market: New products and new marketing approaches are helping banks of all sizes target this profitable segment.
June 10, 2004... For many banks, the small-business market has remained just that - small. Typically, most mom-and-pop operations never grow into large enterprises. They use a modest number of banking services, and then leave when the owners sell off their...

Managing Through a Merger: Bank mergers can be a nightmare for clients and reps alike. Here's what you can do to ease the transition.
June 10, 2004... Bank mergers do wonders for share prices, but they often are unsettling for bank investment consultants and their clients. To hold onto customers during a merger, reps should get out early - and often - to assuage customers' concerns about...

Noted and Noteworthy.
June 10, 2004... with suntrust's purchase of supermarket bank National Commerce Financial, the good old Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, the Atlanta firm is well-positioned to go after First Market Bank, a 30-branch, $1 billion firm in the Monument City. It's...

More or Less Alphabet Soup?: It takes FDIC vice chairman John Reich only slightly longer to lay out his rule-cutting priorities as it does to describe the tool he aims to use. He's got time, though.
June 10, 2004... Here's relief spelled out the way only a Beltway clerk could love: EGRPRA. Time-quite likely, a lot of it-will tell if it eases the heartburn some feel on the Hill about regulations. The Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction...

Techies.
June 10, 2004... Technology veteran John Blakeney joined Kansas City-based Commerce Bank as CIO and svp, overseeing the information services and technologies division. Elizabeth Green joined specialty mortgage banker Paragon Financial as CIO. Mortgage...

On-line Bill Payment: Cost-benefit Ratio Still Not Clear Among Respondents: Less than half of banks surveyed were happy with their current bill-payment processor-and some may switch.
June 10, 2004... The big dilemma for banks when it comes to on-line bill payment is: Should it be free? And if so, for how long? The answers, according to a recently published report from Celent Communications, are difficult to ascertain, but given current...

Si, Hablamos Espanol: How banks are tailoring sales strategies to reach the Hispanic market.
June 11, 2004... America's Spanish-speaking population now numbers some 37 million people - or 13% of the overall population, according to the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau. The fastest-growing market segment in the U.S., this demographic has been under-served by the...

Community Spirit in the Keystone State.
June 11, 2004... This month, BIC talks to reps at two community banks in suburban Philadelphia: Ken Hochstetler, vice president for investments at Univest Wealth Management & Trust in Souderton, northwest of the city; and John Pickering, executive vice...

Making Cyberspace A Safer Place to Roam: Do IT executives have enough on their plate? Allen thinks they need to take a second helping-and dig in.
June 11, 2004... As CEO of BITS, the technology arm of the Financial Services Roundtable, Catherine Allen has her hands full wrestling with member concerns on cybersecurity, crisis management coordination, fraud reduction, identity theft, IT outsourcing,...

Institutional Custody: Union bank corrals E-Ballot functionality: Calls for greater transparency, more responsible mutual fund investing fuel demand for technologies supporting on-line proxy voting.
June 11, 2004... In a time when there's a high priority on regulatory compliance and calls for corporate transparency in mutual funds, pensions and other types of institutional investing, proxy voting is becoming much more complex. Some institutions, such as...