A Direct Line Blog

By Donya Parrish

It is the season for addresses on the state of the union, state of the state, state of the city, but what is the state of credit unions in Montana? Credit unions are doing well financially across the country. Loan growth continues its upward momentum, membership growth has been strong, and net worth keeps improving.

That is great news for your credit union, especially since you participate in the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) and want it to be as healthy as possible. This week, we take a look at the trends in Montana credit unions for growth, based on NCUA Call Report data from September 30, 2017.

Here are a few trends of interest:

• Our 51 credit unions held $4.9B in assets and $2.93B in total loans
• Asset growth was 3.8%, compared to 6.7% nationally
• With only a 0.7% increase, our membership rate was our slowest area of growth. But, with 387,335 total memberships, Montana ranks high in the rate of members to potential members (13% compared to 4% for the U.S.).
• Loan growth came in at a strong 11.1% in our state, with much of that growth in new autos, member business loans, and first mortgages. HELOCs and used autos increased from the previous year, and credit cards had a positive growth rate as well.
• Net worth/assets are a strong 11.6% for our state. Not only is that higher than the national 10.9% average, 100% of Montana credit unions have net worth greater than 7%, which makes them all well capitalized.
• 86.3% of Montana credit unions have a positive ROA.
• Bankruptcies per credit union were much lower in Montana, with a rate of 6.1, compared to the national rate of 31.4.
• While Loan/savings (68.2%) and Loans/assets (59.3%) lag behind the national levels (81.8% and 69% respectively), both are trending upward.

You are doing a great job promoting positive growth trends in the state’s credit unions from your director’s seat. We are thankful for your vigilance and know it can be challenging with some of the local markets you are competing in. Keep your trade association in mind if you are looking for resources or information for your next board meeting.