CEO Confidence Slides In Survey

After expressing optimism during the first quarter of this year, credit union leaders are now feeling less confident about the direction of the economy for both institutions and individuals.

Southwest Corporate's quarterly CU CEO Confidence Survey shows CU leaders reporting a slight drop in economic expectations for their own credit unions' financial condition, and a significant downturn in expectations for their members' financial condition.

The CU CEO Confidence Index dropped to 37.22 in the July 2006 report-down from 42.46 as measured in April, but still higher than the 33.44 level reported in January. The confidence index is a compilation of responses measuring credit union CEOs' feelings on six key issues, and measures confidence on a scale of one to 100. The six key issues: members' and the CU's current financial condition, the members' and the CU's financial condition six months from now, projected loan demand in six months, and share deposit growth in six months.

Measurements trended downward across the board. CEOs' perspective of their CU's current financial condition fell from 57.32 in April to 55.06 with this survey. On the other hand, their view of members' current financial conditions fell from 39.49 the first quarter of 2006 to 31.74 in the latest survey. CEO expectation for members' financial condition six months from now also fell from 40.76 last survey to 30.06 in July.

Share deposit growth expectations also dropped substantially from 28.34 in April to 15.45 this survey.

The only upturn in survey measurements was seen in expected loan demand over the next six months, which rose to 33.99 from 29.30 in the previous survey.

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