Links in “Credit Unions”

Debra Kinney, former CEO of Border Lodge Credit Union in Derby, Vermont, has been sentenced to three years in prison for embezzling $630,000 from 33 members. Kinney admitted writing checks against members accounts to herself and family members. [4/17]

In the past year alone, $507 billion dollars in payments were made through mobile devices, an increase of 40% over the previous year. Mobile ticketing apps appear to be the primary driver for the sharp increase. [4/17]

87% of the organizations surveyed in a recent Osterman Research Report stated that they are unhappy with their internal compliance program. Although most of the organizations reported that they consider compliance a high priority and reported an average cost of $524 per employee per year, the consensus is that most feel their compliance management is focused too much on manual processes. [4/16]

NCUA requires that corporate credit unions implement formal Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) programs. However, according to Larry Fazio, NCUA’s Office of Examination and Insurance Director, the agency does not require all natural person credit unions to implement ERM programs. However, the key is in the word “all”. NCUA may require individual credit unions to adopt ERM-like programs based on specific factors and examiners might use ERM-like techniques to evaluate your credit union in your next exam. [4/16]

NCUA has issued a legal opinion letter that states that current NCUA regulations require federally insured credit unions to obtain fidelity bond coverage under an individual policy. This means that a credit union may not add one or more CUSOs it owns as additional insureds. [4/16]

Real world examples of identity theft can prove helpful in training front line staff. [4/16]

Ever wondered about the strategy behind the rulemaking process at NCUA? Haven’t we all! This article takes a behind-the-scenes look at the decisioning process with comments from current and former board members Debbie Matz, Dennis Dollar and David Chatfield. [4/15]

Survey by GoBankingRates confirms that the rates credit unions pay on their share accounts continues to outpace the rates paid by banks on similar products. Examples include savings, where credit unions outpace banks 0.14% annual percentage yield (APY) to 0.11%; checking, where CUs lead banks 0.31% to 0.20%; and money markets, 0.19% to 0.15%. [4/15]

The early reports from credit unions are that they are seeing minimal if any adverse impact from the Hearbleed data leak. Still credit unions should be confirming with their vendors that they are not using the version of the OpenSSL tool that was subject to the breach. [4/14]

An Indianapolis man, Tom Coughlin, used two fake credit unions, Oxford International Credit Union and Oxford International Cooperative, to sell fraudulent investments to more than 5,000 individuals, most in the United States. To support the fraud, he developed a fake website that showed the online investors that they were receiving the touted return and that claimed that the credit union accounts were privately insured. [4/14]