At the same time, Chamorro said PenFed, like other lenders, has been affected as semi-conductor chip shortages constrained new car purchases, shifted some purchases to the used car market and delayed others.

"The chip issue and the whole supply chain in general has significantly disrupted the market," Chamorro said.

Ricardo Chamorro

New car sales fell from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17 million vehicles before the pandemic to 8.7 million in April 2020, a month after the COVID-19 pandemic began. It began recovering quickly before being hobbled by shortages this year. Cox Automotive on Oct. 27 forecast that October SAAR would be 11.8 million vehicles, down from rates of 12.2 million in September and 16.4 million in October 2020.

"That's all supply issues," Chamorro said. "The good news is demand is healthy. Americans' love affair with automobiles is alive and well. When the supply chain fixes itself, I'm hopeful it will come back."

PenFed also rose a notch to become the nation's third-largest credit union based on its $29.7 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, up 13.1% from a year earlier and up 7.4% from three months earlier. PenFed had been the nation's fourth-largest since it was eclipsed in 2020's fourth quarter by BECU of Tukwila, Wash. The Seattle-area credit union was No. 4 with $29.6 billion in assets and 1.3 million members as of Sept. 30.

PenFed's membership was 2.4 million, up 15.4% from a year earlier and up 2.6% from three months earlier. Data from the NCUA and PenFed also showed:

• PenFed had net income of $89 million in the three months ending Sept. 30, or an annualized 1.28% of its average assets. ROA was up from 1.10% in the second quarter and 0.72% a year ago. For the Top 10 credit unions, ROA was 1.38% in the third quarter, down from a record 1.79% in the second quarter and up from 0.60% a year ago.
• Residential real estate originations were $4.4 billion, up 3% from the second quarter and up 64% from a year ago. PenFed said mortgage originations included $296 million in home equity, down from $301 million in the second quarter.
• Commercial loans backed by real estate were $752.4 million, up 20% from the second quarter.
• Non-real estate originations were $4.4 billion, up 55% from the second quarter and 148% from a year ago.

With credit cards, Chamorro said PenFed is experiencing trends reflected by many banks' third-quarter reports: The volume of consumer spending has recovered, but he expects it will take a while for credit card balances to reach pre-pandemic levels. He said balances will rise next year with less cash from the federal government's "liquidity bazooka" of stimulus payments.

"Trends are going back to normal in terms of consumer behavior, consumer consumption and average balances," he said.

Meanwhile, Chamorro said PenFed is evolving from its data team to marketing team to adapt to a market that increasingly involves "coop-petition" with fintechs.

"You've seen fintechs buy fintechs. Banks buy fintechs and vice versa. It's just part of the whole economy.

"There are fintechs that are trying to be more broad in how they go to market, bringing their own captive [lending] capabilities. And lenders like ourselves are going to become more fintech-ish ourselves by investing in technology and making sure we're more agile.

"In the middle is a lot of cooperation and partnership," he said. "Some of the fintechs don't want to hold the loans, and we do."