As for security, Weber State has taken extra steps to train tellers as well as other personnel about watching out for the unusual and preparing for it.

"We do have a closed membership and a good share of our membership is known to us which is why we just reminded our employees to be on the alert," said West, noting also that the CU added an extra session this year on robbery training.

Being on the alert even means being cautious about "all of our couriers and packages being delivered to us," said the $2 billion America First Credit Union in suburban Ogden. The state's largest CU said all of its branch couriers operating in downtown Salt Lake will need extra ID for themselves and their vehicles to deliver on normal routes.

"America First has planned practice runs for the couriers before the games to make sure everything runs smoothly," said a statement. America First was also one of many CUs and banks that took part in special fraud training offered by American Express.

The Ogden CU as well as Mountain America Credit Union were among the first financial institutions to make use of selected Olympic symbols in newspapers and Internet advertising during the last half of 2001.

"It took lots of careful advance planning, but we were able to get our custom designed Visa promotion approved," said Sheryl Cox, marketing administrator in describing issuance of new debit and credit "Visa Olympic Cards."

The ads had to be cleared by Visa and the U.S. Olympic Committee which has strict rules on use of the Olympic rings, common in TV and billboard advertising by prime sponsors like Bank of America and Visa.

The America First ads say its new "Visa Olympic Cards" will be welcomed by "the world's finest merchants." The ads also have a tagline, which states that Visa is the "worldwide partner" of the 2002 Winter Games.

Other Utah CUs were also looking at limited types of Olympic promotions with Goldenwest Credit Union considering a CD "with a nice rate" which "jumps" as in skiing.

"We hope to play off the Olympic theme a little, and we've been thinking of a campaign about `going for the gold' CD which would have some nice Olympic features like a one jump," said Roger Dickson, marketing director.

"If the rate increases, then you may jump your rate up," explained Dickson. "The promo we are working on might have three people representing judges from different countries with each judge holding up a number that represents part of the CD such as: 12 months, 4.00% APY, 1 jump."

The CU is also planning to fly the flags of 43 countries in front of the CU's corporate offices. "We bought the flags, but we haven't put them on flag poles yet," said Dickson

Goldenwest's office "is on one of the busiest streets in our community so we feel it will get a lot of good exposure," said Dickson. Also getting exposure will be 11 CU-run ATMs at the Salt Lake City airport that were expected to see a sharp increase in volume through March.

"We did have a 20% drop in transaction activity after September 11, but now we expect to double our volume above levels before September 11," forecast Gordon Kennedy, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Mountain America.

Mountain America, which led a CU-based co-op to set up the airport ATMs two years ago, is predicting activity will reach 50,000 a month in February at the ATMs.

"We're making a little money on our airport ATMS, but it was never designed as a money maker," acknowledged Kennedy. The airport machines were viewed more as a vehicle to promote the CU message to vacationers and visitors as they deplane.

Transaction activity at the ATMs has been running at about 25,000 a month, and the goal has been to bring it up to 40,000. The Olympic activity will help reach that goal and hopefully sustain it, he said.

Meanwhile, Mountain America said it does plan to shorten hours at its Park City office, which is a major Olympic skiing venue. Normally, that office is open from 9 to 6 p.m. but the hours may be cut to 1 p.m.

Hours might also be modified at a Timber Junction office "because it is located across the street from a ski jump," said Wendy Cleveland, market development/PR manager.

"The only other branch that might be affected is our Questar branch, due to one way traffic on some of the surrounding roads," said Cleveland. "Questar is the gas company and one of our major SEGBs, and we have a branch located in their main office downtown which is close to some of the ceremonies."

If Questar elects to have modified hours or to close the building, "we will have to follow suit with that branch," said Cleveland.

Lowell Baggaley, president of VAMCU Federal Credit Union, said his CU located on the University of Utah campus-a site for the opening and closing ceremonies-is already witnessing a pickup in ATM activity at two locations.

"One of the buildings next door to us is housing Secret Service personnel, and we understand there are 250 employees there and some of them have been apparently using the machines," said Baggaley.

During the Olympics' opening ceremony on Feb. 8, VAMCU expects to close its main office for half the day for security purposes. Employees will have to wear CU identification throughout the games, said the CU.

Additionally, three streets leading to VAMCU's main office will be closed but the CU said will it make sure members are informed about the changes suggesting they might want to make transactions over the internet or by using ATMs at six service centers operating throughout the state.