NAFCU has begun measuring how credit unions view the overall financial and regulatory landscape through a Credit Union Sentiment Index.
“The survey will be available to members each month and NAFCU encourages credit unions to participate,” said NAFCU Chief Economist and Director of Research Curt Long. “Credit union responses to the sentiment index will provide NAFCU members, legislators and regulators with a simple and easy-to-understand measure of industry conditions from credit unions themselves.”
The index is based on responses to eight questions and can range from zero to 100; NAFCU officials said that a score over 50 represents a generally positive or optimistic outlook. NAFCU said that 46 credit unions responded to the initial survey.
The first overall index, based on the survey, was 58.3.
Specifically, credit unions scored:
- Growth at 73. Respondents cited optimism about the economy, followed by loan demand and regulatory burden.
- Earnings at 70. Respondents said that the major reasons for their opinions were the economic outlook, loan demand and interest rate outlook.
- Lending at 70. The score is an average of two sub-components: loan demand, which stood at 68 and applicant quality at 71.
- Regulatory burden at 20. The measurement was the average of two components: the perception of current regulatory burden versus last year, which was 18 and the expected change in burden, which was 22.
