CU Pros Talk Planning & Strategy in New Economic Videocast

The looming pain the economies of California and Nevada will individually and uniquely feel in 2023 is nearly all due to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases throughout 2022 according to Dr. Robert Eyler, contract economist for the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues, professor at Sonoma State University, and board member of Redwood CU.

Eyler recently joined William Ibrahim, vice president of finance and treasurer for SchoolsFirst FCU, Nader Moghaddam, CEO of Financial Partners CU, and Matt Wrye, senior communications manager for the Leagues, for the first-ever 30-minute Your Economy—Your Credit Union Videocast discussion!

SchoolsFirst FCU is headquartered in Tustin, CA ($27 billion in assets and 1.3 million members across California), and Financial Partners CU is headquartered in Downey, CA and Costa Mesa, CA ($2.3 billion in assets and 90,000 members across Southern California and the Bay Area).

The Leagues’ new Your Economy—Your Credit Union Videocast series will deliver relevant and real-time economic commentary tailored for credit unions as local/regional forecasts are held from Southern California to Northern California in 2023, as well as those in southern and northern Nevada.

In mid-December, Chapman University’s A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research (headquartered in Orange County, California) published its annual economic report for 2023 in tandem with a forecast event. The Leagues’ videocast panel discussed credit union specifics and local economic trends for over 30 minutes, including:

• What “will happen” versus “might happen” in the local Southern California and state economies with respect to credit union planning and strategies for 2023.
• Economic recession scenarios and credit union balance sheet planning.
• Employment and labor force scenarios, demographic of sidelined workers, and outreach to credit union members.
• Member/consumer financial trends, household finances, loan and deposit growth, competition for deposits, and inflation.
• Interest rates, liquidity, and implications for credit union liquidity management.

“When interest rates rise, it doesn’t immediately affect the economy — it takes time to move through,” Eyler said as he opened the discussion. “You’re trading inflation reduction with an increase in unemployment, and this is because business investment and consumer spending slows down as rates pick up. That’s where the balancing act and opportunity cost trade-offs come into play. Unless you get lucky and the supply-side of your economy is growing, you cannot have reducing prices and a growing economy happening simultaneously.”

The Leagues would like to thank SchoolsFirst FCU and Financial Partners CU for being part of this new-year endeavor. We look forward to engaging with you through additional upcoming local economic videocasts in 2023!