Credit Union Members’ Savings Continued to Lag in February

February is usually a month when members are starting to get tax refunds, saving more and paying off holiday debt.

It didn’t quite happen that way this year.

CUNA’s Monthly Credit Union Estimates released Monday showed the trend of above-average loan growth and below-average savings continued through February.

Total loans were $1.55 trillion on Feb. 28, up 18.4% from a year earlier. They were also up 0.4% from the previous month, compared with an average of the January-to-February gains of 0.3% for the six years from 2016 through 2021.

Loans per member were $11,202, up 13.9% from a year earlier and up 0.3% from the previous month, compared with an average February drop of 0.1%.

Savings were $1.88 trillion on Feb. 28, up 1.9% from a year earlier and up 1.1% from the previous month, compared with an average February gain of 2.1%.

Savings per member were $13,638, down 2% a year earlier and up 1% from the previous month, compared with an average February gain of 1.8%.

The result was a loan-to-share ratio of 82.1% in February, up from 70.7% a year earlier but matching the 82.1% ratio of February 2020, the month before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Loan-to-share ratios dipped over the next two years as savings surged during the pandemic, but have been climbing since reaching a low of 69.4% in March 2021.

On Friday, Cox Automotive blamed weak sales of used cars in March in part on lower average tax refunds, which are important for lower-income buyers. That effect did not seem to apply to credit union car loans, which have continued to outpace the nation, but might have affected savings and loan payoffs.

New car loans grew 22.7% to $177.9 billion from a year earlier, and rose 0.4% from the previous month. The average February gain over the previous seven years was 0%, but incorporated changes ranging from -0.5% to +0.8%.

Used car loans grew 17.8% to $320.2 billion from a year earlier, and rose 0.4% from the previous month, matching the average February gain of 0.4%.

CUNA’s report showed the nation’s 4,896 credit unions had 138.1 million members Feb. 28, up 4% from a year earlier, and up 0.1% from the previous month, compared with an average February gain of 0.3%. It also showed:

• The 60-day-plus delinquency rate was 0.67% as of Feb. 28, compared with 0.46% a year earlier and 0.71% a month earlier.
• Assets were $2.21 trillion, up 4.1% from a year earlier, and rose 0.4% from the previous month, compared with an average February gain of 1.7%.
• Credit cards grew 16% to $74.3 billion from a year earlier, and fell 0.4% from the previous month, compared with an average February drop of 0.8%.
• Unsecured consumer term loans (excluding credit cards) grew 21.2% to $66.5 billion from a year earlier, and rose 1.4% from the previous month, compared with an average February drop of 0.2%.
• First-lien mortgages grew 4.6% to $550.7 billion from a year earlier, and rose 0.7% from the previous month, compared with an average February drop of 0.7%.
• Second-lien mortgages grew 31.1% to $111.4 billion from a year earlier, and rose 0.4% from the previous month, compared with an average February drop of 0.3%.