WASHINGTON – Callahan & Associates this week announced the launch of what it calls the industry's first publication dedicated to tracking the financial performance of billion-dollar credit unions. There are 83 credit unions with $1 billion or more in assets, including 11 that crossed that threshold in the past year, and with combined assets of $183 billion, they hold about 30% of total credit union assets. "Their 12.1% growth rate sets the pace for the industry," said Callahan Executive Vice President Jay Johnson. "They continue to lead not only in size, but by virtually every performance measure including profitability and operating efficiency. For all these reasons, we feel that now is the right time to begin focusing on them as a group." The new volume is the fourth in Callahan's Financial Yearbooks series published annually for the past 15 years. Like the others, it provides two years of balance sheet data, as well as a five-year history to allow deeper analysis of the performance of these big CUs. The five largest in the group are Navy FCU in Virginia ($20 billion); State Employees Credit Union in North Carolina with $11.3 billion; Pentagon FCU in Virginia, $6 billion; The Golden 1 Credit Union in California, $4.8 billion; and BECU Credit Union in Seattle, Washington, $4.67 billion. Western FCU in California is the smallest of the giants with just over $1 billion. For information on purchasing a directory, go to www.creditunions.com or call (800) 446-7453.