Early Data Analysis Points To Double-Digit Loan Growth For Credit Unions At Year-End 2015

With more than 85% of the industry reporting in Callahan & Associates’ FirstLook Program, early data trends suggest another quarter of double-digit loan growth.

Each year, the National Mortgage News publishes a list of top 200 loan originators. In the beginning of the month, Tim Mislansky of myCUmortgage blogged about why credit unions need to be on the list. This week, CreditUnions.com is showing you how to get there.

In the Graphic Of The Week, analyst Janet Lee takes a look at 6 Things To Know About Credit Union Lending Trends. For example, did you know the annual rate at which credit unions have increased loan balances has increased for the past five years? Or that as of September 2015, credit union loan growth was more than six times the average for lending institutions nationally? Learn more in this week’s infographic.

As the data clearly shows, credit unions have been posting strong lending growth for a few years now, but individual institutions have their own strategies to help them achieve their growth goals. And bigger doesn’t always lead to better performance.

For example, two of the top 10 credit unions in third quarter 2015 loan growth California’s Miramar Federal Credit Union ($171.6M) and Denver Fire Department Federal Credit Union ($142.9M) are each single-branch institutions tightly focused on service-based SEGs, military and fire and rescue, but one has grown by making first mortgages and the other topped list by buying loans from other credit unions.

Check out which other credit unions topped the list and learn about the strategies of these two exemplary institutions in How Two Credit Unions Became Leaders In 12-Month Loan Growth.

New York cooperative First Source Federal Credit Union is increasing its lending portfolio at twice the rate of the average credit union its size, and its membership is growing at an even better clip.

The lending volume has prompted its managers to decentralize lending decisioning and underwriting, and its staff is pumping out $1.53 million a year in annual loan origination per employee, 50% more than the average of the 339 U.S. credit unions with $250 million to $500 million in assets that’s with a delinquency rate half of its asset-based peers.

How does the credit union do this? It opens its ears before it closes its coffers. Learn how this week in How Attentive Listening Makes For Stronger Lending by senior writer Marc Rapport.

Teamed with the appropriate expertise and experience, member business loans offer several benefits for credit unions. These loans allow the credit union to demonstrate its financial commitment to and support of the communities it serves, and in today’s interest rate environment, these relatively small dollar loans often provide greater yields than investments.

Such is the case at Alabama-based Listerhill Credit Union. Listerhill held more than $84 million in member business loans at the end of third quarter 2015. That’s approximately 18% of the credit union’s total loan portfolio. That total is impressive considering how quickly and soundly Listerhill has built the portfolio. At first quarter 2012, the credit union held just north of $49 million in MBLs. Learn more about Listerhill’s lending strategy in How To Build An MBL Program by Callahan writer Erik Payne.

Finally, in a Q A with San Antonio’s Generations Federal Credit Union, Jack Curtis, senior vice president of retail lending, talks about how the credit union analyzed its issues and took action to improve its conversion ratio.

Converting a higher percentage of opportunities leads to higher average production, Curtis says. Does anyone need a better reason than that to track and improve the ratio? Read more today.

Today, regular readers and subscribers to the CreditUnions.com daily newsletter, Currently On, might have noticed a new look to this morning’s email.

We’ve replaced our You Might Also Enjoy links with a robust collection of featured articles and blogs to kick off the newsletter. Click around to discover what is most relevant to you and be sure to share what you find with your co-workers.

Additionally, we’ve added a Learn More section that highlights the research, analysis, events, videos, and other resources we provide exclusively to our Callahan clients. Just look for the lock icon, and subscribers to Callahan’s Media Suite, Membership, or Leadership programs can simply click directly from the email for immediate access to these cultivated offerings don’t forget you must be logged in to enjoy the benefits of these companywide offerings.

If you’re not a Callahan client, don’t worry. You can still access blogs, weekly articles, and Search Analyze profile performance data from the email. And, yes, it’s still free. But there’s no better time than now to see what you’ve been missing. Don’t let 2016 be the year that could have been phenomenal.

Happy Reading!

February 2, 2016

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