Savings Continue To Flow In; $12.3B Added In Feb.

Another $12.3 billion of new savings flowed into credit unions in February, one of the biggest months ever, according to CUNA. About $21 billion of new savings poured into CUs in the first two months of the year, rivaling the start in each of the past two boom years.

Share drafts grew the most in February, by 8%, likely due to an end-of-the-month payday, while money market accounts grew 2.3%; regular shares 2.2%, and IRAs 1.9%. Lending slowed to a crawl, with outstanding loan balances actually declining by 0.2% in February, loan growth for the first two months to a negative 0.2%. As a result, net capital continued to fall to 10.6%, from 10.8% at the start of the year. The high savings growth has pushed the loan-to-share ratio down to 68.1%, the lowest since March 1996.

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