Share Growth Dries Up At CUs

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - (11/23/04) -- The flood of new deposits thatpoured into credit unions the past four years continued to dry upin the third quarter, with deposit growth almost flat for the threemonths, NCUA reported Monday. That follows growth of less than 1%in the second quarter. As a result, deposit growth has declined tojust 4% for the first nine months of the year, down fromdouble-digit growth of the previous three years--when more than$150 billion of new deposits flooded into credit unions. On theother hand, loans grew by almost 3% in the third quarter, pushingyear-to-date loan growth to a strong 8%, NCUA said. The growth inlending, coupled with the continuation of record low rates paid bycredit unions--cost of funds--helped credit unions boost theirreturn-on-average assets (ROA) to 0.94, up slightly from 0.92, and0.90 in the first quarter. Pacing lending for the third quarter wasnew car loans, which grew by 4% during the period. First mortgageloans grew by 2% and used car loans by 1% for the three months.Membership growth continued to stagnate, advancing at an annualizedrate of just 1.9% for the quarter, the lowest in several years. Theloan delinquency ratio rose to 0.71% for the third quarter, upslightly from 0.67% in the second quarter, and 0.68% in the firstquarter; while the charge-off ratio remained stable at0.52%.