3 Ways To Fund Loans

When the loan-to-share ratio at UICCU topped 100%, and continued to grow, the Hawkeye State credit union adopted a three-pronged funding strategy.

Top-Level Takeaways

  • Annual loan growth at the University of Iowa Community Credit Union has averaged more than 20% for the past 10 years.
  • To fund such growth, the cooperative looks uses member deposits as well as FHLB advances and non-member deposits.

University of Iowa Community Credit Union($4.5B, North Liberty, IA) is in an enviable position. It’s annual loan growth has averaged more than 20% for the past 10 years, and the growth of the communities it serves, along with an expanded branch network, has pushed the credit union’s loan-to-share ratio higher than 120%. Its loan-to-assets ratio hovers around 92%.

In this QA, Todd Fanning, University of Iowa Community Credit Union’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, discusses the strategy this Hawkeye State credit union uses to fund its remarkable loan growth without paying exorbitant rates or moving beyond a cost of funds the institution is comfortable maintaining.

Todd Fanning, SVP/CFO, University of Iowa Community Credit Union

What’s fueling the loan growth at UICCU? Do you see the loan-to-share growth coming down?

Todd Fanning:If anything, I think the loan-to-share ratio continues to climb.

The Iowa City/Cedar Rapids corridor has had tremendous growth. The area has the university, plus there is employer growth and demand for housing. On an annualized basis, the credit union’s assets have grown by 20% or more on average for the past 20 years. We’ve also expanded our branch network into the Quad cities and Des Moines.ContentMiddleAd

Because of our growth and loan-to-assets hovering around 92%, we don’t have an investment portfolio. There’s no need for one.

The credit union uses a funding tripod. Can you explain what that is?

TF:Traditionally, most credit unions fund loans by growing member deposits. However, when a credit union is growing like ours by more than $700 million in assets in one year the ability to raise enough member deposits at rates that are not excessive becomes challenging.

Rather than depend solely on member deposits, we use Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) advances and non-member deposits. There are several CD hotlines or brokerage lines where you can post your rates and get deposits from other financial institutions.

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Those avenues help us keep funding costs down. If we depended on one source alone either member deposits or non-member deposits we’d have to raise rates quite a bit to attract the funding we need.

If another option can decrease your cost of funds, why not take advantage of it?

Todd Fanning, SVP/CFO, University of Iowa Community Credit Union

Each year, we look at our history and expanding branch network to set a reasonable goal for the total member deposits we can attract at the market rates we set. Then, we fill in the gaps with non-member deposits and FHLB advances.

There’s not a set percentage, but we do calculate a goal percentage for each and monitor that throughout the year to see how close we are. It’s really a function of being able to control the cost of funds.

Talk more about the non-member deposits.

TF:Any credit union or financial institution can join a network like National CD Rate Line, QwikRate or SimpliCD. These platforms allow you to post your rates and see what others are posting. It’s primarily institutional deposits from other credit unions and banks, although other types of institutional investors use these networks as well.

Typically, investors are looking to stay below the $250,000 federal insurance limit, so we tend to see deposits of $248,000 or $249,000.

Is there a maximum amount of non-member deposits the credit union can take in or a limit on FHLB advances?

CU QUICK FACTS

U of I Community Credit Union
Data as of 09.30.17

HQ:North Liberty, IA
ASSETS: $4.5B
MEMBERS: 165,295
BRANCHES: 16
12-MO SHARE GROWTH: 18.3%
12-MO LOAN GROWTH: 23.7%
ROA: 1.62

TF: According to our ALM policy, the credit union cannot hold more than 20% of its total deposits in non-member deposits. We’re at approximately 14% today, so we have plenty of room for growth.

As far as the FHLB advances, any financial institution is limited by whatever collateral its pledging. We have room to grow there as well. Currently, we have a little more than $500 million in non-member deposits and roughly $660 million in FHLB advances.

In terms of the loan portfolio, have you sold loans or loan participations?

TF:Yes, we have some commercial loans that we’ve participated out due to their size. We’ve also sold close to $200 million in first mortgage loans over the past four or five years. And we did sell an auto portfolio several years ago.

We typically do this to provide extra liquidity; however, it’s not something we do frequently as we want to maintain the relationships with our members. And when we do sell mortgage loans, we do so through participations so we can retain the servicing.

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Any advice you’d give to other credit unions looking at their funding options?

TF: We’re in a unique situation because of our growth and loan-to-asset ratio. This tripod approach grew out of our need to maintain a high level of funding.

However, any time a credit union is faced with rising costs or needs funds to meet growing loan demand, the traditional thinking is to simply attract more member deposits. It’s important to remember that there are other options that might be cheaper for the institution. Credit union executives and bankers often look at borrowing as a negative when, in fact, it could be a more cost-effective funding solution than continuing to raise deposit rates.

I’d encourage other credit unions to think outside the box and monitor the rate environment. With interest rates moving up, member deposits had been the most expensive funding source, now that has shifted to non-member being the most expensive and the FHLB is the cheapest. It is always contingent on the market and things change, which is why we monitor those rates on a weekly basis. At the end of the day, if another option can decrease your cost of funds, why not take advantage of it?

January 22, 2018

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