SEATTLE-The benefits of the consumer sentiment that led to Bank Transfer Day continue to be felt at $9.6-billion BECU-including a 74% year-over-year increase in November over one year earlier.
"Our growth trend started in August, which was then a record month for us with 8,800 new members," said Todd Pietzsch, manager of public relations for the former Boeing Employees CU, Tukwila, Wash.
He said the credit union added 16,000 members in October and 13,000 in November. In contrast, October 2010 saw 6,000 new BECU members join, while last November drew 5,500.
"We have seen four straight months of big improvement year-over-year," Pietzsch told Credit Union Journal. "Even the first week of December is running 170% of average. We are very happy. Obviously, this exponential growth has to slow down at some point, but it will be a continued focus for us in 2012 that we are meeting the needs of our new members and our current members."
BECU is managing to turn these new members into borrowers, Pietzsch continued. Despite home equity lending being "challenging" as a result of the fact equity simply "is not there" for many homeowners, the credit union was up in November 74.8% year-over-year for consumer loan applications, which includes auto, credit cards and lines of credit.
Total consumer loan applications for October and November 2011 combined were up 65% over the same two months in 2010. Total loans for Jan. 1 through Nov. 30, 2010, were 153,645. For the same 11 months in 2010, that figure was 187,544.
"People are not just joining to say they are joining a credit union, they are moving their relationships to us," Pietzsch said.
