News Now Headlines--07/02/2009

News Now LiveWire

Australian CUs have experienced strong growth in retail deposits at the expense of their regional banking rivals. http://ow.ly/goIE 23 hours ago

Yakima Valley CUs have benefited from larger banks troubles as membership, deposit growth, and overall presence expand. http://ow.ly/goHD 1 day ago

Florida Central CU names CUNA board member Laida Garcia as president, CEO. Garcia succeeds the late Ed Gallagly. See http://ow.ly/gnw7 1 day ago

WesCorp detailed cost-saving initiatives-- including roughly 90 layoffs--that aim to roll back expenses to 2003 levels. See July 6 NN. 1 day ago

Wash. State CUs have seen a 313% mortgage loan increase over the last 10 years, with lower car loan, savings deposit increases. See Mon. NN. 1 day ago

more...

July 2, 2009

Congress should "step back" and take time to "analyze the implications and the effects" of the laws and regulations that are being debated before it begins the process of legislating financial regulatory reforms, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) said Wednesday on CNBC.

The National Credit Union Administration on Wednesday said it has begun to work with the Federal Reserve to implement the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009, portions of which supersede interagency rules addressing unfair and deceptive acts and practices (UDAP).

The Federal Trade Commission, the National Credit Union Administration and other associated federal regulators have published final rules that will change portions of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act to allow consumers to directly dispute potentially inaccurate credit history data with the lender that provided that information to the credit reporting agency.

Homeowners whose mortgages are backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will now be given greater opportunities to refinance their homes under the Home Affordable Refinance Program. The Federal Housing Finance Agency Wednesday authorized those government-sponsored entities to increase their loan-to-value ratio ceiling to 125% from the current 105%.

Nine credit unions in Pennsylvania have announced plans to offer special low-interest loans and lines of credit to help members who are state employees cope with the potential loss of their paychecks.

Credit unions are a good alternative to traditional mortgage financing as credit markets overall have tightened up, the Boston Globe said in a Tuesday article.

CUNA's Washington, D.C., and Madison, Wis., offices will be closed Friday in observance of the Independence Day holiday. News Now will not publish an edition Friday but will resume regular publication on Monday.

Heartland Payment Systems, one of the nation's largest payments processors, successfully completed the first phase of its end-to-end encryption pilot project Monday in response to last year's data breach.

Here are the top 10 most requested News Now stories during June. Use the links to read the entire stories online.