WASHINGTON—CUNA’s latest credit union data shows that CUs remain on track for a record year in membership growth.
“Memberships were up .4% in September and 4.3% over the past year,” said Mike Schenk, CUNA VP of research and policy analysis. “That compares with a 3.9% increase in the year ending in September 2016. Overall, credit unions nationally added 4.7 million members since the start of the year. That means we are on track to add 6.2 million memberships over the full-year 2017. We have not seen anywhere near 6.2 million additional memberships on an annual basis at any time in history.”
Other credit union data through September shows that those new members who are joining are borrowing, said Schenk.
“Loans are up .7% in September and 10.9% over the past year,” he said. “That compares to an increase of 10.25% in the year ending September 2016.”
The lending gains have been broad based, noted Schenk.
“We are seeing healthy increases in loans in each of the key portfolios we track,” he said. “Leading the pack is new autos, up 16% in the last year. Used auto is up 12% in the last year.”