RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — The California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues' latest WestScan economic report, which compares year-end 2007 statistics to those of 2006, provides ample evidence of last year's economic downturn on credit union balance sheets.

In California, return on assets was cut in half, down from 0.79% in 2006 to 0.40% in 2007. The culprit was loan losses. Provisions increased drastically to $658.5 million, up from $454 million for year-end 2006. Additionally, delinquencies-to-total loans nearly doubled, and net charge offs were up roughly 50%, from 0.41% in 2006 to 0.58% for 2007. One silver lining in the profitability stats was that gross income-to-average assets actually increased slightly last year.

Nevada credit unions turned a decent profit in 2007, earning 0.75% ROA and posting an overall 50 basis point increase in capital ratio. In contrast to California, Nevada provisions didn't increase much–up only $2.5 million over 2006 numbers, to $22.5 million. However, delinquencies exceeded 1%, more than doubling 2006 numbers, and hinting at possible losses to come.