Recent record-low mortgage interest rates caused a mortgage refinance and purchase boom at credit unions in July, according to a CUNA economist's analysis of CUNA's monthly review of credit unions.

Starting March 2, 2011, federally insured credit unions must abandon any jury-rigged public displays that disclose a 2006 change in law that increased share insurance levels to 250,000, up from $100,000.

Nonlife insurance companies can now invest up to $250,000 in share certificates at New York credit unions.

It's hard to wrap one's mind around the extent of the damages and hardship wreaked five years to the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina. Almost as mind-boggling is the extent of the credit union movement's response--one that time and time again is mentioned by the people who lived through the disaster.