Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke praised the work of community development financial institutions, including community development credit unions, at a recent Washington meeting.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded the World Council of Credit Unions $6.7 million to support the Foundation's efforts to grow credit unions in Africa and Latin America. The Gates Foundation also awarded $2 million to the World Council's Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions.

Members of Lafayette Federal Credit Union fighting the $332 million CU's proposed charter change to a mutual bank collected signatures on a petition requesting a special meeting at which board members could be recalled at its Cabin John branch last week.

Visa and MasterCard, the two biggest credit card brands, rolled out their holiday sweepstakes promotional campaigns on Nov. 6 and both are taking care to dangle lots of cash in front of shoppers.

e-Security solutions provider Perimeter has developed a risk assessment tool that it says will help credit unions examine and mitigate their different forms of risk, including card risk, from the inside out.

For Stan Hollen and his family, the last few years have been all about transition and how to manage it.

The National Credit Union Foundation has chosen Carol Schillios, a woman known for her work among the impoverished of the world and for training credit unions for its Herb Wegner Award for Individual Achievement.

"I am proud of the interactive and ongoing dialogue we've had with our members over the past few months. I believe our forthright nature and open communications enabled NFCU members to understand the situation and why this merger was the best option," she added.