WASHINGTON — As the credit crunch continues, credit unions are seeing healthy loan growth for the first three quarters of the year, according to a sneak peek at Call Report data being submitted to NCUA right now.
That "sneak peek" comes compliments of Callahan and Associates' FirstLook Report, an analysis of aggregated 5300 call reports representing 99% of credit unions.
Through September, the 7,631 FirstLook credit unions saw their year-to-date loan originations increase 4.3% annually. This growth comes as CUs remain a viable source of credit during a three-month period in which the Federal Reserve Board's Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey shows 24.1% of banks tightening their mortgage lending standards and more than 15% of banks tightening their credit card lending and consumer lending.
"Credit unions are supporting the communities they serve by providing credit for homes, cars, and education," said Jay Johnson, EVP at Callahan & Associates. "These local efforts are translating to industry market share numbers that are at all-time highs."
Other trends include:
• As of September, FirstLook CUs reported outstanding loan balances of $576 billion. This represents an increase of 1.2% from the balances these same CUs reported in June. This balance-sheet growth comes as CUs continue to expand their presence in the secondary market.
• As of September, these FirstLook credit unions now serve over 90 million members.
• Share balances were up an impressive 8.8% through September, a record high for this group of credit unions, and up three percentage points from the growth rate the industry reported in the previous September.
• Through September, credit unions reported a delinquency rate of 1.69%-a 10 bp increase from June, but a slowdown from the average increase in delinquency over the past four quarters. CUs have also seen their charge-off levels remain practically unchanged over the past quarter, increasing only 2 bp from industry trends reported in June.
