Five credit unions were honored this week for their successes in their consumer, mortgage and business lending programs.

CUNA Mutual Group presented them its Excellence in Lending awards at the CUNA Lending Council's annual conference Monday in New Orleans.

Two credit unions were recognized for their consumer lending programs: University of Kentucky Federal Credit Union in Lexington in the $250 million or more assets category and Texell CU in Temple, Texas, in the $250 million in assets or less category.

For mortgage lending, the winners were Charter Oak FCU in Groton, Conn., in the $250 million or more asset category and Latino Community CU in Durham, N.C., in the $250 million in assets or less category. Latino Community received a second award  in the low to modest means category.

The $910 million Black Hills FCU in Rapid City, S.D. was presented with the business lending award.

Nearly 50 credit unions were nominated for the awards, said Dan Murray, CUNA Mutual vice president. The company and the CUNA Lending Council created the lending award program in 2000.

“It's a credit to the ingenuity and resiliency of our nominees to achieve this kind of success during times of high unemployment, a poor housing market and low consumer sentiment,” Murray said.