According to the quarterly data released by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) for the second quarter of 2015 and analyzed by Callahan & Associates, Nebraska credit unions reported significant gains across metrics such as loan originations, shares, and member growth. These improvements can be attributed to a growing economy, with unemployment in Nebraska falling 70 basis points year-over-year to 2.6%, 2.7 percentage points lower than the national average.

Nebraska Credit Union 2Q 2015 results:
• Due to mergers and liquidations the number of credit unions in Nebraska fell by 6 between June 2014 and June 2015, with 63 credit unions operating in the state as of June 2015. Despite a consolidating industry Nebraska credit unions grew membership 3.7% year-over-year adding 17,385 new members, outperforming national credit unions that increased membership 3.2% year-over-year. This caused the average number of members per credit union to increase 13.6% year-over-year to 7,655 as of June 2015.
• As membership increases, Nebraska credit unions are becoming better at increasing product usage with auto and credit card penetration rates posting annual gains, reaching 21.5% and 8.6% as of June 2015, respectively. Credit unions nationwide posted an auto penetration rate of 18.0%.
• Year-to-date loan originations totaled $776.5 million at Nebraska credit unions through June 2015, an 11.6% increase year-over-year.
• Soaring first mortgage originations at Nebraska credit unions contributed to the overall loan growth of 7.4%. First mortgage originations expanded 38.1% year-over-year to reach $224.3 million in June 2015. While credit unions are originating more first mortgages, they are also originating higher quality loans with first mortgage delinquency posting a 21 basis point improvement year-over-year falling to 0.39%, less than half of the national rate of 0.80%.
• Shares expanded 3.8% year-over-year with strong growth in core deposits, which grew 6.6% as of June 2015.
• As loan growth outpaced share growth, the loan-to-share ratio expanded 2.5 percentage points to 80.9%, higher than the national credit union average of 75.4%, respectively.

The Nebraska Credit Union League (NCUL) was organized in 1934 to serve as an advocate organization for the state’s credit unions and their 470,000 members. For more information about the League, LIKE them on Facebook or visit www.nebrcul.org.