Member delinquencies were down significantly in the first quarter of 2004, declining nearly 10%.
Shares and assets, meanwhile, continued to grow faster than lending at federally-insured credit unions, according to first quarter data released by NCUA. Data show that delinquencies were down 9.6% from January through March, pushing down the overall delinquency ratio to 0.68%.
The agency said that loans held-for-sale had increased to 41.6%, indicating credit unions were preparing for an increase in rates by primarily moving to sell fixed-rate mortgages.
During the first quarter, first-mortgage loans grew 1.23% to $119 billion. Among the other first quarter data:
* Assets were up 2.8% to $627.2 billion.
* Loans grew 1.1% to $380.2 billion (used auto loans were up 1.15%, new auto loans increased 1.68%).
* Shares increased 2.8% to $543.3 billion.
* Investments were up 1% to $162.3 billion.
* Net worth grew 2.09% to $66.8 billion.
* The loan-to-share ratio slid to 70% from 71.2%.
* Loan to share ratio declined from 71.2% to 70%;
* Membership grew 0.5%, up from 82.4 million to 82.9 million members.
