Credit Unions Enter COVID-19 Storm 'Stronger Than Ever': Callahan
While the impacts of the 2020 downturn are yet to be seen, CUs are better-positioned to handle them than they were in 2007.
Compared to where they stood at the start of the Great Recession of 2007-2009, credit unions are in a much better position to weather the economic storm that has already begun to hit as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That was the top takeaway from Thursday’s quarterly Trendwatch webinar from Callahan & Associates. As of March 31, assets and capital are double of where they were on Dec. 31, 2007, at $1,663.3 billion and $193.4 billion, respectively. Coverage ratio is at 142.6% as of the first quarter of this year, compared to 86.2% at the end of 2007, and member relationships are stronger than ever before, according to Callahan.
Members with a share draft account were at 60% on March 31, compared with 45.2% on Dec. 31, 2007, an increase of 14.8 percentage points. In addition, auto loan penetration among members rose 4.1 percentage points and credit card penetration 3.3 percentage points during the 12-plus year time span.
“We’re coming into this as strong as we’ve ever been as an industry,” Jay Johnson, chief collaboration officer for the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, said.
In highlighting loan activity for the first quarter of 2020, Johnson said first mortgages led the way, accounting for 36% of the quarter’s originations. Since the first quarter of 2019, overall loan growth grew 26.5%, from $111.5 billion to $141 billion, which included a 96.7% spike in first mortgages, from $26 billion in Q1 2019 to $51.2 billion in Q2 2020. Fixed rate mortgages more than doubled in the past year, from $16.5 billion in Q1 2019 to $37.5 billion in Q2 2020, an effect of interest rates reaching record lows.
However, overall loan growth slowed for the 12 months ending March 31, 2020 compared to the 12 months ending March 31, 2019, down from 7.9% to 6.7%, according to Callahan’s research. Contributing to this was a slowdown of lending in other categories, in particular new auto loans, which fell 0.4% for the 12 months ending March 31, 2020, and other real estate loans, growing only 2.6% during the same time period.
Johnson added credit unions extended an additional $5 billion in credit card lines in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
“Mortgages are the story here, but another part of the story is that many headlines have been saying one in four consumers have seen their credit card lines cut. But that isn’t the story, at least at credit unions, as we continue to see an extension of credit,” he said.
Share balances grew 8.4% in the 12 months ending this past March 31, with share certificates leading the way at 16% growth and followed by share drafts at 11.3% growth. Regular shares and share drafts accounted for 71% of share balance growth in the first three months of 2020, Callahan reported.
Credit unions also reported their largest ever quarterly net liquidity increase in Q1 2020 – $50 billion. “What we have seen during this unique challenge is plenty of liquidity, at least so far,” Callahan President/CEO Jon Jeffreys said.
Credit unions’ loan to share ratio fell to 81% for the first quarter from 82.3% a year ago, after increasing steadily for six straight years, with Jeffreys noting credit unions still “have a fair amount to lend and protect themselves.”