Credit unions will need to focus on finding new members and improving their loan penetration to compensate for a long-term drought in loan demand, leading CU economists said.
"We are predicting zero loan growth" for credit unions this year, said CUNA's chief economist Bill Hampel. "That doesn't mean people aren't borrowing at all, but that it will be unlikely that credit unions will see any net growth in their loan portfolios for some time."
NAFCU's chief economist Tun Wai agreed, noting that CUs are facing a more complicated problem of seeing their loan assets fall at the same time as members have started saving more. "So just at the time when the numerator in the net worth ratio is falling, the denominator is rising, leading to more net worth pressure."
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