The low rate environment coupled with “the pressure we get on compliance and earnings” is fostering heightened attention to product profitability, a topic now heading the agenda for the semi-annual meeting of the New England Financial Executives Council on Sept. 30.

Council Chairman Brian Therrien said the council conference slated for a hotel in Portsmouth, N.H., will feature discussion, in part, on “advanced analytical methodologies” and on using averages to estimate product costs and to improve performance.

Therrien, who also is chief financial officer of the $164 million Holy Rosary CU in Rochester, N.H., said the Portsmouth session comes at a critical time for CFOs seeking new ways to get over earnings and compliance hurdles as the economy continues to struggle.

The lead speaker is Michael J. Kohl, president of a Scottsdale, Ariz. consulting firm aiding CUs on management and profitability concerns.  The New England Financial Executives Council, made up of CFOs from New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, also met earlier this year with enterprise risk heading the topic list.