ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The U.S. economy is not out of the woods yet but is much improved and will likely keep improving, albeit sluggishly and as long as no crisis from overseas arises. 

That was the take offered by Wayne Best, chief economist at Visa to CU payment executives attending the Card Services for Credit Unions' annual meeting Friday in St. Petersburg.

Best presented data which suggested that a number of economic indicators as a whole are improving. He in particular touted a new tool from Visa which marries data from Visa's payment processing network with data from the credit bureaus to offer real time economic information at the city level.

If you consider that government economic data is nine months old, on average, you can see it doesn't serve as a very good basis for real time decision making, Best told the group.

Best put his comments in the context of an improving economic situation still vulnerable to possible shocks from outside the country and moving sluggishly overall.

He advised credit unions to segment their card offerings and promotions much more tightly than they have in the past in order to identify and take advantage of payment opportunities.