The new head of the $712 million Silver State Schools CreditUnion said he's optimistic his beleaguered Las Vegas institutioncan recover enough in the second half “to restore the $2.8 millionwe lost in the first half.”

Andrew Hunter, the retired Patelco CEO who took over at SilverState on July 11, dismissed any rumors cropping up over the yearsthat the privately insured CU, and the state's largest, might stillpursue a merger partner.

On the contrary, insisted Hunter, Nevada schools represent “anexcellent field of membership … a great field and those membersdeserve” their own CU to serve their needs.

At the same time, Hunter told Credit Union Times onThursday the financial turnaround for the Las Vegas CU remainsextremely difficult but doable despite the very poor Nevadaeconomy, citing a host of positive signs.

For instance, many of the drastic school cuts and teacherlayoffs have already taken place “and hiring is now up and higherenrollments are good for us,” said Hunter.

While the Las Vegas unemployment rate remains at a staggering13.8%, among the highest in the nation, “good things are happening”with real estate values hitting bottom and chamber groups report“tourism is up.”

While acknowledging the raw $300 million in lost assets over thepast five quarters, those statistics need clarification and takenalone they are misleading, said Hunter.

“Our asset size is not falling in a 'bad' way,” he said.Like other CUs, Silver State “is seeing balances decrease in highinterest bearing accounts, such as certificates. Overall, ourdeposit balances have been flat since December 2010 and wecurrently are not aggressively paying high rates,” said Hunter,stressing again the CU is basically “working well except for thechallenges with loan losses.”

Hunter, who succeeded longtime CEO and attorney David Rhamy,said there are no plans to shutter any more branches or pursue morelayoffs, cuts that were a hallmark of the past couple years.

And there are no changes foreseen in the $22 million capitalnote extended in 2010 and renewed by Ohio-based American Share Insurance through 2015, he said.

Asked how he liked his new job, Hunter admitted to “some reversesticker shock seeing the current market values on some of theproperties we've financed.”

But overall, he said, “I'm enjoying myself here and the peopleare great.”