At the end of June loans among credit unions were up 10% over one year earlier, cresting at $449.1 billion.
Lending during June was up up 1.4% over one month earlier and had grown 4.8% so far this year, according to CUNA, which noted that figure is down from 5.1% growth over the same period in 2004.
"We're seeing surprising strength in loans with fairly weak growth in savings, compared to what was expected," said Mike Schenk, CUNA vice president of economics and statistics. Schenk said credit card and unsecured loans also picked up substantially, leading to fairly healthy growth across credit unions' loan portfolios.
The growth in lending, combined with relatively flat savings rates, pushed the average credit union loan-to-share ratio to 76%.
CUNA reported that savings increased 0.02% in June to $590.6 billion, with year-to-date growth down 2.8%, compared with 4.1% during the same period in 2004. Savings in June 2004 stood at $567.3 billion.
