Trust for Credit Unions Nears $3 Billion in Assets
Rising investments are byproducts of a surge in savings.
A pool of institutional mutual funds for credit unions is setting records in assets as credit unions seek higher yielding investments for their flood of deposits.
The Trust for Credit Unions (TCU) based in Washington, D.C., reported Monday it is nearing $3 billion in assets under management from its two bond portfolios. Its TCU Short-Duration Portfolio, which targets a two-year duration, recently exceeded $1 billion in assets. It had a 30-day effective yield of 0.90% net of fees and expenses as of Nov. 27.
Its other portfolio, the TCU Ultra-Short Duration Portfolio, targets a three month duration, and had an effective yield of 0.42% for the 30 days ending Nov. 27.
ALM First Financial Advisors serves as the funds’ investment advisor, providing ongoing economic updates and educational resources for current and potential investors.
The funds’ distributor is Callahan Financial Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Callahan & Associates, the Washington, D.C., credit union company.
“This has been a challenging year for so many,” Jay Johnson, TCU president and Callahan & Associates’ chief collaboration officer, said. “We’re honored to support credit unions as they serve the essential financial needs of their members and communities.”
“This is exactly what TCU was created for – to provide credit unions with the institutional investments they need, whenever they need them.”
Credit unions held $532.6 billion in investments as of June 30, up 19.2% from March — an $85.7 billion gain that was the largest quarterly dollar increase on record. Total deposits rose 8.1% from March, and 16.2% from June 2019, according to TCU’s latest Credit Union Investment Trends report.
“Until this year, portfolio growth from the first to second quarter has been negative since 2011, underscoring the highly unusual dynamics at play in 2020 and the sheer volume of liquidity coming into credit unions,” the report said. “The economic uncertainty related to COVID-19 continued to result in significant share inflows as members sought safe havens for their assets.”
Spikes in savings are associated with recessions. In February 2008, two months after the start of the Great Recession, TCU’s money market portfolio topped $1 billion, up from $687 a year earlier.
TCU was founded in 1987 by credit unions to provide an option for diversifying their holdings of overnight and short-term funds from banks and the direct market. The funds were designed to be professionally managed and based on the cooperative values of credit unions.