Washington -- The rates of loan growth at U.S. credit unions are significantly outpacing those of commercial banks across all consumer lending and asset quality categories, according to research from Callahan & Associates.
Examining third quarter 2015 data released by the National Credit Union Association and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Callahan found that CUs' loan portfolios jumped by 10.7% from Sept. 30, 2014 to Sept. 30, 2015 – versus a 6.6% increase for commercial banks.
By types of loan, over that same year-over-year period, credit unions delivered 8.7% growth in real estate, 14.8% growth in auto and 6.5% growth in credit cards. In comparison, banks posted corresponding growth figures of 4.8%, 7.6% and 3.5%, respectively.
Thus, in some cases, credit unions enjoyed loan growth rates that were almost double that posted by banks.
Overall, auto loans accounted for 33.1% of the loan portfolio at credit unions, but only 4.9% of the portfolios at commercial banks, as of June 30, 2015.
Other loans comprised nearly 38.3% of the banks' loan portfolio, just more than half of which were commercial and industrial loans.
In addition, CUs are improving their asset quality, reporting a delinquency ratio of 0.78% as of Sept. 30, 2015, compared with 1.59% at banks.
"Credit unions continue to provide American consumers [with] outstanding value in an increasingly competitive landscape for financial services, and it shows, as the not-for-profit cooperative model continues to produce outstanding growth metrics across the board," said Jon Jeffreys, managing partner at Callahan & Associates.
