Membership in federally insured credit unions grew to more than 101 million at the end of Q2 2015, and cooperatives continued to grow loans to support the new memberships, the NCUA reported Thursday.
The agency's announcement came one year after CUNA revealed credit unions surpassed 100 million memberships, based on data collected by the trade association in its June 2014 “Monthly Credit Union Estimates.”
According to an NCUA media release, membership in federally insured credit unions grew to 101,084,138 at the end of Q2 2015, which represents an increase of more than three million from the end of Q2 2014. The numbers are based on Call Report data submitted to and complied by the agency as of June 30, 2015.
“Across America, there's a growing recognition that credit unions offer solid value to their members,” NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz said. “More people see credit unions as an affordable financial services alternative. Credit unions continue to increase lending while taking steps to shed certain investments that would pose risk when interest rates inevitably begin to rise. All these trends are signs of a robust system.”
The agency reported steady auto and real estate lending during Q2 2015 – according to the release, total credit union loans reached $745.2 billion, an increase of 3.2% from Q1 2015 and 10.6% from a year ago. New auto loans grew to $92.8 billion, up by 3% from the end of Q1 2015 and 19.5% from the end of Q2 2014. First mortgage loans at federally insured credit unions reached a total of $306.2 billion, up by 3.1% from the previous quarter and 9.6% from the previous year, the NCUA reported.
Member business loans and payday alternative loans also grew in Q2 2015, rising to $54.4 billion for a 2.9% increase over Q1 2015 and 11.2% bump over Q2 2014, and to $35.2 million for a quarter over quarter increase of 18.2% and year over year rise of 18.8%, respectively. Student loans declined by 0.6% to $3.3 billion from Q1 to Q2 2015, however, compared to one year ago, they jumped by 13.5%.
Loan losses also fell during the second quarter, according to NCUA data. The net charge-off ratio declined to an annualized 46 basis points year to date from 49 basis points at the end of the Q2 2014. However, the delinquency ratio at federally insured credit unions rose slightly in Q2 2015 to 74 basis points, up from 69 basis points the previous quarter but still well below the 85 basis point level in the second quarter of 2014, the agency said.
Other findings in the NCUA's report include a decline in total investments by federally insured credit unions to $279 billion at the end of Q2 2015, down by 4.2% from the end of Q2 2014; and a rise in the overall loan to share ratio to 75.5%, which reflects a 2.2 percentage point increase since last quarter and a 3.9 percentage point increase since last year.
In addition, the number of federally insured credit unions fell to 6,159 at the end of Q2 2015, a decline of 270 or 4.2% in the past year, the NCUA said.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
