If you work in credit union business lending, the last two years have been a roller coaster that will fuel you with stories for years to come. At our company's monthly staff meeting in March 2020, we made final arrangements for everyone to work from home. Later that day, I carefully crafted an organizational chart with the anticipation that lending activity would grind to a slow pace for a long period of time and layoffs would be necessary. I could not have been more wrong as 2020 and 2021 were record business lending years for the credit union industry. With the NCUA Call Report data released for year-end 2021, we have an opportunity to dig deep into the numbers to see just how busy credit unions were assisting members with small business and commercial real estate investment needs.

Originations Soar, Funded Loan Growth Is Modest

2021 was a great year to be a business loan originator. A total of $41.9 billion in loans were originated during the year by credit unions nationwide. This is up nearly 40% in a single year compared with 2020 and an amazing 70% higher in annual loans originated in 2019. The largest credit unions, those with over $10 billion in assets, contributed $2.45 billion of the nearly $12 billion increase in business loans funded.  Forty-five of the 50 states saw increased business loan activity. The actual number of loans funded among credit unions increased a modest 4%, which was aided by the average size increasing $135,000 to $524,000.