Alabama credit unions may certainly not be alone, but they arewitnessing big gains in savings this spring due in part to all thatgood press lavished on the industry over the last few months,according to officials of the League of Southeastern CreditUnions.

The president/CEO of one Alabama CU, Bob Steensma of the $175million Five Star CU of Dothan, said his CU experienced a 30% gainin savings during the first two months of 2010.

As Five Star's cost of funds has undergone an increase, “we nowhave to ratchet this down a bit,” said Steensma, a director of LSCUwho attributed the increases to various factors including the debutof a rewards package and interest on checking.

Nonetheless, Five Star gained $9 million in February, anunusually high figure for one month. Overall, LSCU said the savingsrate among Alabama CUs was up 12%, two times the national average.Meanwhile, Florida members' savings was 5% higher, “a00%improvement from 2008,” said the league.

Apart from new product offerings, Steensma attributed thesavings increases to the flight to safety from banks as the publiccontinues to direct favorable attention on CUs.

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