For the first time, membership in locally headquartered credit unions has passed the one million mark.
That’s as of Sept. 30, according to the latest data available from the California Credit Union League, an Ontario-based state trade association for 336 California-based credit unions.
San Diego hasn’t see that kind of increase in membership — 8 percent year-over-year from the third quarter of 2015 to the third quarter of 2016, or 73,800 new members — since 2008, the CCUL said in its third-quarter snapshot of the industry.
From the most recent membership low in 2011, when San Diego credit unions reported having 813,000 members, membership is up 24 percent, according to the report.
The membership growth propelled record-setting numbers of new and used auto loans, first mortgages, total loans and total deposits.
Nine Percent Increase
Local consumers deposited more than $15.1 billion with credit unions in San Diego County as of Sept. 30, a 9 percent year-over-year increase and 38 percent increase compared with the recent low of $10.9 billion in 2010.
That put more than ever before in accounts, including $5.4 billion into money market accounts, $3.5 billion into savings and $2.1 billion into checking, CCUL said.
Within the community, San Diego County-based credit unions had more than $12 billion loaned out as of Sept. 30. That’s 61 percent higher than the institutions’ post-recession low of $7.5 billion in 2012.
The most recent peak for total loans was in 2008, when credit unions in San Diego loaned out $9.5 billion, the CCUL said.
Loans for first mortgages also set a record, rising 7 percent to $6.6 billion. That was 50 percent above the most recent low of $4.4 billion in 2011. However, originations were down 27 percent year-over-year to $788 million compared with the third quarter of 2015.
Home equity lines of credit and home equity loans were up 4 percent year-over-year to $908 million as of the third quarter of 2016; originations were up by 2 percent compared with the same quarter in the prior year.
Credit Cards: $502M
Credit card lending also set a record with $502 million outstanding, a 6 percent increase year-over year and 18 percent over the most recent low of $427 million in 2012.
One category that slowed year over year was that of business loans not related to real estate, which hit $95 million, down 1 percent. That category has been volatile in recent years, fluctuating between $42 million and $486 million since 2001, the CCUL said.
As membership and loans rose, so did employment: Credit unions in San Diego County had 2,750 people working for them as of Sept. 30, 3 percent more than in the third quarter of 2015, according to the CCUL.
The CCUL gets its data from balance sheet data filed with the National Credit Union Administration.
