EXHIBIT 31.1

                                  CERTIFICATION


      I, Hugh Miller,  President and Chief Executive  Officer of Delta Financial
Corporation (the "Company"), certify that:

     1. I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of the Company;

     2. Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any untrue
        statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact  necessary
        to make the statements made, in light of the  circumstances  under which
        such  statements  were made, not  misleading  with respect to the period
        covered by this quarterly report;

     3. Based on my knowledge,  the financial  statements,  and other  financial
        information  included in this  quarterly  report,  fairly present in all
        material  respects the financial  condition,  results of operations  and
        cash flows of the Company as of, and for, the periods  presented in this
        quarterly report;

     4. The  Company's  other  certifying  officer  and  I are  responsible  for
        establishing  and  maintaining  disclosure  controls and  procedures (as
        defined in Exchange  Act Rules  13a-15e and 15d-15e) for the Company and
        we have:

        (a) designed  such  disclosure  controls and  procedures, or caused such
            disclosure   controls  and  procedures  to  be  designed  under  our
            supervision,  to ensure that  material  information  relating to the
            Company, including its consolidated  subsidiaries,  is made known to
            us by others within those entities,  particularly  during the period
            in which this quarterly report is being prepared;

        (b) evaluated the effectiveness of the Company's disclosure controls and
            procedures  and presented in this quarterly  report our  conclusions
            about the  effectiveness of the disclosure  controls and procedures,
            as of the end of the period covered by this  quarterly  report based
            on such evaluation;

        (c) disclosed  in this  report  any  change  in the  Company's  internal
            control over financial  reporting that occurred during the Company's
            most recent  fiscal  quarter  that has  materially  affected,  or is
            reasonably  likely to  materially  affect,  the  Company's  internal
            control over financial reporting; and

     5. The Company's other  certifying  officer and I have disclosed,  based on
        our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting,
        to the Company's auditors and the audit committee of the Company's board
        of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):

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        (a) all significant  deficiencies and material weakness in the design or
            operation of internal  control over  financial  reporting  which are
            reasonably  likely to  adversely  affect  the  Company's  ability to
            record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

        (b) any fraud,  whether or not  material,  that  involves  management or
            other  employees  who  have a  significant  role  in  the  Company's
            internal control over financial reporting.

      Date: August 13, 2003

                                           By:/S/ HUGH MILLER
                                           -------------------------------------
                                           Hugh Miller
                                           PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER


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