Credit Unions Slip on Autos, Gain on Credit Cards, Fed Report Shows

Credit unions appeared to be falling further behind other automobile lenders in December, while still gaining slightly with credit cards, according to a Fed report released late last week.

The Fed’s G-19 Consumer Credit Report showed all lenders held $1.19 trillion in car loans in December 2019, up 3.5% from a year earlier.

The report did not include balances by lender type; estimates for banks and credit unions from other sources are not yet available for December.

However, CUNA Mutual Group showed credit union auto loan growth has been consistently slowing in recent months, and November 2019 balances were only 2.7% higher than in November 2018.

The 10 largest credit unions, which tend to perform better than smaller ones, did increase their auto loan portfolios faster than the five largest bank lenders at year’s end, according to NCUA Call Report data released in the past 10 days.

The Top 10 credit unions held to $43.7 billion in auto loans as of Dec. 31, up 3.6%. New cars loans fell 0.4% to $19.9 billion, while used car loans grew 7.3% to $23.8 billion.

The five corporate lenders held $301.3 billion in auto loans as of Dec. 31 — 2.5% higher than a year earlier. The five — Ally Financial, Capital One, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America — hold about a quarter of the nation’s auto loans.

CUNA Mutual Group estimated credit unions held $380.3 billion in automobile loans in November. That amount represents 32% of total auto loans estimated by the Fed. That share is down from 32.1% in September 2018, 32.3% in December 2018 and 32.2% in June 2019.

The Fed’s G-19 report consists of two parts.

The first part is revolving debt, or credit cards, which rose 4.2% over 12 months to reach $1.1 trillion as of Dec. 31 among all lenders, and non-revolving debt, which includes auto loans, government and private student loans, and other term loans excluding real estate.

The second part is non-revolving consumer loans, which rose 4.8% to $3.1 trillion as of Dec. 31 among all lenders, with automobile loans represented 38.5% of non-revolving loans, down from 39% in December 2018.

Student loans rose 4.7% to $1.64 trillion, and 53% of non-revolving loans in December 2019, compared with 53.1% a year earlier. Data on student loans and motor vehicle loans are reported quarterly for all lenders.

Credit unions held $414.7 billion in non-revolving consumer loans in December 2019, up 2% from a year earlier, and they continued to gain a slightly larger share of credit card debt in December.

Credit unions held $67.8 billion in credit card debt in December, up 8.3% from a year earlier and representing 6.2% of the debt held by all lenders. Their share was up from 6.1% in November 2019 and 5.9% in December 2018.

Banks held $988.1 billion in credit card debt, up 4.4% from a year earlier. Their share was 90% in December 2019, compared with 89.9% in November 2019 and December 2018.

The Top 10, which represent about one-sixth of credit union assets, showed the following credit card and auto loan balances as of Dec. 31, and changes from a year earlier:

1. Navy Federal Credit Union, Vienna, Va. ($112 billion in assets, 9 million members) held $17.1 billion in credit cards, up 15.4%, and $13.9 billion in car loans, up 5.4%.

2. State Employees’ Credit Union, Raleigh, N.C. ($41.4 billion in assets, 2.5 million members) held $784.2 million in credit cards, up 4%, and $2.8 billion in car loans, up 1.7%.

3. PenFed, Tysons, Va. ($24.8 billion in assets, 1.9 million members) held $1.7 billion in credit cards, down 1%, and $3.4 billion in car loans, up 4.1%.

4. BECU, Seattle ($22.2 billion in assets, 1.2 million members) held $1.2 billion in credit cards, up 5.1%, and $2.5 billion in car loans, up 14.8%.

5. SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, Santa Ana, Calif. ($16 billion in assets, 936,243 members) held $777.6 million in credit cards, up 1%, and $2.7 billion in car loans, up 13.4%.

6. First Tech Federal Credit Union, San Jose, Calif. ($13.1 billion in assets, 610,473 members) held $373.1 million in credit cards, up 1.5%, and $1.9 billion in car loans, up 1.2%.

7. Golden 1 Credit Union, Sacramento, Calif. ($13 billion in assets, 1.1 million members) held $461.3 million in credit cards, up 3.8%, and $4.8 billion in car loans, down 10.5%.

8. Alliant Credit Union, Chicago ($12.2 billion in assets, 493,675 members) held $214.6 million in credit cards, up 21.6%, and $2.2 billion in car loans, down 22.6%.

9. America First Federal Credit Union, Salt Lake City ($11.7 billion in assets, 1.1 million members) held $558.6 million in credit cards, up 9.2%, and $4.5 billion in car loans, up 12.8%.

10. Suncoast Credit Union, Tampa, Fla. ($10.5 billion in assets, 874,011 members) held $681.5 million in credit cards, up 13.7%, and $3.4 billion in car loans, up 7.9%.