Mountain America Draws Over One Million Members

Mountain America Federal Credit Union’s June Call Report showed it surpassed one million members, becoming the eighth credit union to reach that mark so far.

Its second-quarter Call Report showed its assets grew 19.7% over 12 months to reach $13.2 billion as of June 30, while its members grew 9.2%.

“Mountain America recognizes that each member is unique, and we are honored that so many trust us as their financial institution,” President/CEO Sterling Nielsen said in a news release.

Mountain America was the nation’s 12th-largest credit union in March 2021 based on its $12.9 billion in assets, up from No. 15 at the end of 2019.

Much of its growth has come from automotive lending and geographic spread.

NCUA data showed Mountain America had 102 locations as of March 2021: 74 in Utah, 13 in Idaho, eight in Arizona, four in Nevada, two in New Mexico and one in Montana.

Credit unions had 21,515 locations in U.S. states and territories on Dec. 31, 2020, 449 fewer than a year earlier. That followed slow growth in 2017, 2018 and 2019, with a net gain of 182 branches in the states and territories.

Credit unions added 35 branches in the first quarter. Mountain America added two branches in the first quarter, including its first branch in Montana.

And while Mountain America is not in the Top 10 in total assets, it ranked fifth in size as of March in its total automotive loan portfolio. In June that portfolio was $4.3 billion, up 14.9% from a year earlier. By comparison, CUNA Mutual Group’s latest data shows all credit unions held $392.1 billion in auto loans in May, up 3.9% from May 2020.

Mountain America’s new car loans grew 7% to $1.2 billion in June, while its used car loans grew 18.4% to $3 billion.

A CU Times analysis of data from the U.S. Small Business Administration found Mountain America was the nation’s second-largest credit union producer of Paycheck Protection Program loans and the 213th-largest producer among all lenders.

Mountain America originated $506.8 million in PPP loans supporting 71,937 jobs from April 2020 to May 10, 2021. The loans were designed to be forgiven by the SBA, and many of those loans have started falling off lenders’ books this year.

Mountain America’s NCUA data showed it held 5,028 PPP loans worth $223.3 million on June 30, down from 7,281 loans worth $322.4 million on March 31.

Its second-quarter report also showed the following results and changes from a year earlier:

• Net income for the three months ending June 30 was $61 million, or an annualized 2.07% of average assets, 43 basis points higher than ROA for 2020’s second quarter.
• Residential real estate originations were $795.4 million, up 35.6%.
• Real estate-backed commercial loan originations were $71.2 million, up 1.9%.
• Production of all non-real estate loans from credit cards to cars was $1.7 billion, down 7%.