MADISON, Wis. — The total number of credit unions has now dropped below 8,000, but membership continues to increase, as does the savings those members are placing in their credit unions.
Analysis of the first three quarters of 2009 released last week by CUNA Mutual as part of its Credit Union Trends Report shows 190 credit unions have disappeared year-to-date as the result of voluntary and involuntary mergers, bringing the total of FICUs to 7,898.
Yet overall credit union asset growth remains robust at 9.1% to $894 billion at the end of Q3, CUNA Mutual reported. While annual savings growth has been especially strong at almost 11% over the past year, despite record low yields being paid on deposits of all types, deposit growth slowed substantially during the third quarter to just 0.7%. Loan growth over the one year period ending Sept. 20 was 2.9%, driven by first mortgages, credit cards and used vehicle loans.
The analysis shows membership growth has surged, especially over the past two months when 701,000 Americans joined credit unions, boosting the total to 92.8 million. But CUNA Mutual is projecting declines during the fourth quarter.
At Sept. 30 both the overall capital-to-asset (10.0%) and loan-to-share ratios (78.1%) were unchanged from one month earlier, but delinquencies climbed to 1.774%, with delinquent loans at credit unions totaling $10.5 billion.
