RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees CU overcame the national storm winds and reported one of its best years in 2008.
The nation’s second largest credit union reported that loans, most of it first mortgages, grew by $136 million, or 4.5%, in its fourth quarter, and by $1.3 billion, or 12% for the year.
That fueled a healthy fourth quarter with a return-on-assets of 0.99%, and of 0.80%, twice its average ROA, for the full year.
"Because of how conservative we are, we tend to look bad in times of boom and better in times of distress," Jim Blaine, president of the $16.7 billion credit union, told The Credit Union Journal yesterday.
For the year, deposits were up 11% to $15.4 billion, while capital grew by 15% to $166 million.
The loan delinquency ratio did move up to a still-low 0.50% for 2008, from 0.29% in 2007; while the charge-off ratio also tipped up slightly to a low 0.12%.
Michael Lord, chief financial officer for the credit union giant, attributed the success in 2008 to: increased mortgage lending; the $1.5 billion of state-backed student loans the credit union purchased in the second half of the year; and growth in card interchange income. "North Carolina has dodge the bullet to this point, in terms of what is going on in the world," said Lord.
