CUNA Mutual Group's Credit Union Trends Report for June 2012 is now available online and can be accessed in the CU Products & Services section of our website, under the heading Research & Information. Final Q1 2012 data did not disappoint when viewed at the industry level, although there remains a few devils in the detail. Strong membership gains continue, as does capital growth. Lending gains are improving, but recent interest rate declines may stall mortgage loan portfolio growth. CUs continue to be very active in member loan refinances and there is still more room for improvement.

Additional highlights of this month's report include:

• We finished April with 7,264 CUs. Consolidation rates are increasing with the YTD net loss 23 CUs above the 2011 pace and the year-over-year reduction now at 270. The 194 CUs with assets with more than $1 billion now hold 49% of all industry assets.

• Savings and assets declined in April due to payroll timing issues. Savings are up 3.5% YTD and 4.8% in the past year. Deposit yields continue to fall. Assets held above the trillion dollar mark and are up 5.1% since last year.

• CUs reported a strong April for gains in shorter-term consumer credit and with previous strength in fixed-rate 1st mortgages, increased their annual loan growth rate to 2.3%. In the past year, 67% of all loan growth came from billion-dollar CUs and 53% of all CUs reported loan portfolio declines.

• The membership surge continues with another 236,000 added in April. The YTD gain is now larger than all of 2011 and four times the YTD gain at this time last year. At 95.4 million, membership is up 2.5 million in the past year with 1.9 million in just the last six months.

• Capital and loan growth combined with declines in savings and assets increased the capital-to-asset ratio to 10.2% and the loan-to-share ratio to 67.1%. The loan delinquency rate improved to 1.505%, but may stall if employment conditions continue to soften. Detailed data show just 145 CUs holding 0.8% of industry assets, have a net worth ratio below 6.0%. 

For more information, view the complete report here. If you have problems accessing the information or have additional questions about the research and information services provided by the Louisiana Credit Union League, please contact Danielle Thibodeaux at (800) 452-7221, ext. 3018 or dthibodeaux@lcul.com.