First mortgage originations comprised 34.2% of the total loan volume. Credit unions sold 50.4% of those originations to the secondary market. Even with the sales, credit unions posted loans outstanding growth, up 2.5% from March 2011 levels.

Consumer loan originations as a percentage of total loan volume dropped, however, to 55.6% during first quarter 2012, down from a peak of 63.4% in September 2011.

Delinquency is down 16 basis points to 1.42% and the charge-off ratio, which traditionally increases from the fourth to the first quarters, dropped 10 basis points to 0.85%.

The net interest margin dropped 15 basis points from 3.24% in December to 3.09% through March, due to members paying down higher-rate loans and credit unions replacing them with loans at lower rates.

However, despite the drop in net interest income, the increase in mortgage lending and other non-interest income sources drove total income up 62 basis points. The last time credit unions posted positive year-over-year growth in total income was September 2009.

With positive growth in total income and improving asset quality, which produced a 20.2% drop in year-to-date provision expenses, earnings are a high point for FirstLook credit unions.

They posted an annualized year-to-date ROA of 0.87% after stabilization expenses, up 20 basis points from December's level of 0.67% and up 11 basis points from the previous March.

The capital ratio for the industry stands at 11.1%, which is unchanged from the previous March, but indicates an increase in reserves due to asset growth.