Credit unions try to steer toward another year of growth
June 13, 2018 2:40 PM
The view from the trenches
Credit union auto lending has been doing gangbusters for several years now. Can the trend continue? At CU Direct’s recent DRIVE conference near Dallas, Credit Union Journal asked attendees how auto lending has been going so far in 2018 and what they are projecting through the end of the year.
Tammie Atoigue, VP of consumer lending, $1.3 billion Sound CU, Tacoma, Wash.
We had 20 percent growth last year and we have a goal of 9 percent growth this year. We are inundated right now because we offer a great experience. Dealers love us because we answer the phone on the first ring, while they sometimes can’t get other lenders to answer the phone at all. When we get an indirect member, we follow up with a phone call. We ask about their experience at the dealer and we offer a cross-sell product. This allows us to get those one-transaction members to have multiple products with us.
Sarah Horton, chief retail/lending officer, $780 million Kirtland FCU, Albuquerque, N.M.
Our auto lending is going very well. We are holding steady, with some improvement over last year, which is what we projected. We have other strategic initiatives so we just want to stay steady on the auto lending side.
Alan Cortum, CEO, $55 million Valley Oak CU, Three Rivers, Calif.
We are on target this year. We budgeted for 3 percent growth and we will hit that target by the end of the year. We are 85 percent loaned out, so we are not looking for big growth.
Piper Madison, VP of consumer lending, $800 million InTouch CU, Plano, Texas
On the indirect side we are doing really well. We are exceeding our expectations. We have a really good program, a great network of dealers and exceptional follow-up.
Alex Casillas, president and CEO, $34 million My CU, Redwood City, Calif.
Our auto lending is slowing down because we have made changes to our program. We have stopped accepting ITIN indirect loans. We will do below-average numbers this year, but we are okay with that because with rising interest rates we are making more money on investments. Those are bringing less risk and guaranteed returns.
Mary Ann Brooks, national dealer relation manager, $2.5 billion Unify Financial CU, Torrance, Calif.
We are doing really well. We have doubled our volume from last year and [had] a record month in May. We project this to continue through the end of the year. Our credit union currently is in 14 states, and we have expanded indirect lending to 11 of those states.
Michael Dougherty, chief lending officer for $1.7 billion Anheuser Busch Employees CU, St. Louis
We are seeing good growth, both on direct and indirect lending. We are up about 7 percent over last year, overall. Credit quality continues to be strong, and delinquencies are starting to improve. We expect growth on direct lending to be 8 percent to 10 percent through the end of the year, with indirect lending up about 3 percent. We are improving our decisioning and improving turnaround time by automation. We are improving our relationships with the top dealers in the St. Louis market by providing them with the same service we expect them to provide to our members. Dealers send us volume and great quality. The opportunity is in how the dealers treat the members. We ask our members how their experience was at the dealership.
Danielle Napier, indirect loan manager, $250 million Mid-American CU, Wichita, Kan.
Auto lending is going well for us. We are doing better than we expected. We expect to do at least $85 million for the year, about the same as 2017.
