The industry's drumbeat of new memberships and loan business stemming from banking's troubles and the flight to safety picked up new momentum last week with two state leagues, Washington and Mississippi, crowing about membership gains.

New signage is going up today on multi-state branches of the old American Savings Credit Union of Memphis, which was formally merged this week into Hope Community Credit Union, of Jackson, Miss. now with $117 million in assets.

While the SBA expected a new program offering deferred payments and no fees to be in huge demand, only $4.6 million loans have been funded since the recovery effort was launched on June 15.

The prospect of big loan demand from state employees resulting from Illinois' current budget crisis has one credit union prepared with revised procedures "so we don't waste a lot of staff time with inactive accounts."