MADISON, Wis. – State chartered credit unions in Wisconsin–representing the vast majority of all credit unions–boosted their loan loss reserves last year by millions of dollars as delinquencies and charge-offs began to tick up, according to the annual summary issued by the Department of Financial Institutions.
The state charters increased their allowance for loan loss by 5% over the previous year, as the delinquency ratio rose from 1.09% to 1.27%; and the charge-off ratio from 0.28% to 0.31%.
Cost of funds for Wisconsin’s credit unions rose to 2.79%, from 2.45% at year-end 2006, while operating expenses were flat.
Even still, the 270 state charters were able to maintain a return-on-assets of 0.70% in 2007, the same as in 2006. There are only two federally chartered credit unions in the state.
Lending increased by 4.9%, while savings increased by 5.6%, leaving the loan-to-share ratio at 96.7%, one of the highest in the country.
During the year, University of Wisconsin CU joined Landmark CU as the state’s only billion-dollar credit unions.
