adminAuto loan growth highlighted June’s Monthly Credit Union Estimates, in a month that boasted strong overall strength for America’s credit unions.
“The June monthly estimates continue to show very strong auto loan growth: at the mid-year point, total auto loans grew 7.3 percent, an annual pace of 14.6 percent,” said CUNA Senior Economist Jordan van Rijn. ”That’s the strongest mid-year growth in auto loans since 1995.”
New auto loans led loan growth during the month, rising 2.3 percent, followed by fixed-rate mortgages and unsecured personal loans both up 1.5 percent, used auto loans (1.3 percent), credit card loans (0.5 percent), and adjustable-rate mortgages (0.4 percent). On the decline during the month were home equity loans (0.3 percent) and other mortgage loans (0.5 percent).
Van Rijn noted that growth of home equity loans and second mortgages had slowed from their pace a year earlier. “At this time last year, HELOCs and second mortgages were up 3.6 percent, versus only 1.4 percent growth this year,” van Rijn said. “This may be an indication that rising interest rates are starting to dampen the demand for second mortgages, which have been incredibly cheap over the past 7 to 8 years. However, first mortgages are continuing to grow strong at a 5.6% clip through June versus a 4.7 percent rate at this point last year.”
Credit union savings balances increased 1.2 percent in June, compared to a 0.1 percent increase in May. Share drafts led savings growth during the month, rising 4.8 percent, followed by regular shares (0.8 percent), one-year certificates and individual retirement accounts (both rising 0.5 percent), and money market accounts (0.3 percent).
“With the rising interest rates, there is some indication that members are beginning to shift funds into higher-yield deposit accounts: regular savings, checking and MMA accounts are all growing slower than this time last year, while CDs and IRAs are both growing faster,” van Rijn said. “For example, through June, MMAs grew 2.04 percent versus 3.21 percent at this point last year, while CDs rose 3.38 percent through June 2018 versus only 2.68 percent as of last June.”
Credit union memberships grew 0.4 percent in June and are on pace for annual growth of 4.7 percent. That would be the fastest annual membership growth since the 1990s.
Credit unions’ 60-plus day delinquency remained at 0.6 percent during June.
The loan-to-savings ratio increased to 83.5percent in June from 83.4 percent in May. The liquidity ratio (the ratio of surplus funds maturing in less than one year to borrowings plus other liabilities) increased to 14.2 percent in June from 13.5 percent in May.
The movement’s overall capital-to-asset ratio decreased from 10.6 percent in May to 10.5 percent in June. The total dollar amount of capital increased 0.7 percent to $153.8 billion.
