HOBOKEN, N.J. — The financial industry has seen various changes as a result of the current economy and the subprime crisis and the latest results of the Credit Union Times online voting poll aimed to see how the economy has impacted business loans in the credit union world.

Of the readers that reported their credit union offers business loans the largest percentage, 24%, reported seeing a decrease in loan requests during the economic downturn, subprime crisis and tightening of credit. Following closely behind, 22% of readers reported that they haven't noticed any significant changes in the amount of loan requests. Sixteen percent of voters reported that they had actually seen an increase in loan requests.

Overall, 38% of voters reported that they don't offer business loans.

Are Mega Mergers Good for the Industry?

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Mergers in the credit union industry is not just between small and large CUs as there has been an increase in mergers between credit unions of similar size in good financial standing.

Mergers between two fairly large and healthy CUs have become notably more common and have grabbed the attention of the industry. With the recent announcement of merger plans between $470 million Visterra Credit Union and $530 million Credit Union of Southern California and between $611 million T&C Federal Credit Union and $609 million USA Federal Credit Union, Credit Union Times wants to know your opinion on how these large mergers affect the industry.

Are mergers between large, healthy credit unions good for the industry?

-Yes

-No

-Not Sure

Vote online at www.cutimes.com.