First-responder Credit Union Newsroom

  Changing the Map     Redistricting, explained Congressional redistricting is the process by which states redraw electoral district boundaries   that determine representation in the US House of Representatives. The Constitution, federal law, and court rulings require districts to have roughly equal populations, avoid discrimination against racial or language minorities, and, in most states, be geographically contiguous. For most of American history, redistricting has followed a predictable cycle, occurring every 10 years after the census.   Gerrymandering is the deliberate manipulation of district boundaries to advantage one political party. Common tactics  by both major American political parties include packing opposition voters i...

  WASHINGTON—The Treasury Department on Thursday announced the launch of the new Trump Accounts mobile app, marking the next phase of the Administration’s rollout of its new federally backed investment savings program for children ahead of the program’s official July 4 launch date. Donald Trump The app, now available through major mobile app stores, will serve as the primary platform for families to manage and activate Trump Accounts. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the app is intended to give parents and guardians a “simple, secure way” to participate in the program, which was created under the 2025 Republican tax-and-spending package. Families that already submitted IRS Form 4547 to enroll children in the program will begin receiving phased activation emails between now and July 4, according to Treasury. Under the program, eligible children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, can receive a one-time $1,000 federal seed contribution into a tax-deferred investment ac...

  Credit Where Credit's Due   Credit reports 101 Used to calculate credit scores   and determine creditworthiness, credit reports are comprehensive documents that detail the credit history of a person or business, including current and former lines of credit, bankruptcy records, and more.  Credit assessments actually started in the 1700s   as a way to evaluate businesses’ financial standing rather than consumers’. The early 1800s brought efforts to standardize the credit reporting system as more businesses were started that needed loans, and the labor movement’s success in the second half of the 1800s led to an increased need for standardized c...

May 27, 2026 CU Today TORONTO–While AI has been deployed across a host of back office functions, on the consumer-facing side its promise is increasingly being seen in mortgage lending, where lenders are promising mortgage approval decisions in as little as 47 seconds, reporting that up to a third of inquiries are now being handled by chatbots, and slashing underwriting time to just minutes. Toronto-based TD Bank Group said it has also deployed its first agentic artificial intelligence system in mortgage lending, reducing the time required to prepare applications for underwriting from an average of roughly 15 hours to less than three minutes. According to a statement from TD Bank, the new AI model automates mortgage pre-adjudication — the process that occurs before a human underwriter reviews an application. The bank said the system classifies borrower documents, extracts and validates financial information, calculates income, performs policy and consent checks, identifies discrepancie...