MADISON, Wis.-Membership growth slowed in December from its record pace, but not until credit unions across the nation added a near all-time best of about 2.4 million members for 2012, according to preliminary estimates by CUNA.
December's growth was just 100,000 new members, but that appears to be the fewest new members added during any of the 12 months, when credit unions averaged 200,000 new members per month.
Those figures compare to the best years ever for membership growth, including 1986, during the height of the savings and loan crisis when an estimated 2.6 million members joined credit unions; and 1999, just after the national "Campaign for Consumer Choice," when some 2.3 million Americans joined a credit union.
The flood of new members last year was fueled by the November 2011 Bank Transfer Day movement, when troubled bank depositors fled the high fees charged by big banks for lower-cost alternatives.
Last year's gains compare to 1.3 million new members for 2011 and an average of 1.2 million new members the previous four years.
Loan growth picked up slightly in the second half, to a 2.6% rate, from just 1.8% in the first half, making 4.4% for the year, according to CUNA, which surveys more than 400 credit unions every month. That was the highest annual loan growth in four years, since 2008 when the financial crisis began to hit.
Savings growth, however, slowed in the second half to just 1.4%, from 4.9% in the first half, making 6.4% for the year. Still, that was the highest savings growth since 2009, when depositors were fleeing big banks after several large failures.
Asset quality continued to improve in the final months of the year, with delinquencies holding steady at 1.14%, down from 1.60% at year-end 2011, and the lowest since 2007, before the financial crisis.
