Ninety-five percent of the year-to-date increase in members' savings balances has come from liquid accounts.
According to CUNA Mutual Group's latest Credit Union Trends Report, savings were up $3.8 billion in March, the last month tracked, and are up $35 billion on a year-to-date basis.
However, the increases are not in line with the number of members joining credit unions.
"Given the exceptional membership gains, I expected stronger growth," said David Colby, chief economist at CUNA Mutual.
Indeed, the 1.03 million member increase through March dwarfs 2013's YTD gain. However, last year was a record year for membership growth, Colby said.
Eighty percent of 2013's membership increase came from the 328 largest credit unions, which is 4.9% of all credit unions, the data showed. Roughly 54% or 3,606 credit unions reported membership declines last year.
Meanwhile, looking at the YTD savings balance increase, 95% of the gain came from highly liquid accounts, according to the trends report.
Almost 52% of the YTD deposit growth came from the 5.8% YTD gain in regular shares, with national average deposit yields holding at 0.22%.
Just slightly more than 33% of the YTD deposit growth was attributable to the 9.7% YTD increase in share draft accounts, and 10% came from money market accounts, Colby said. While down in March, certificates of deposit were up 0.9% YTD.
"Our 2014 forecast calls for annual growth consistently below the 10-year average rate of expansion (of 5.6%)," Colby said. "Credit unions will achieve this controlled growth by closely monitoring relative deposit yield competitiveness."
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
