Business lending as a percentage of total loans at credit unions has increased 53.1% since 2006.
That’s according to SNL Financial, a firm that tracks rates at financial institutions. Total loans were $27.48 billion in 2006, increasing to $40.53 billion in 2009 despite the recession.
Since 2009, the amount the dollar amount of total business loans has fluctuated, from $38.58 billion in 2010 and again increasing to $41.64 billion in the second quarter of this year.
According to SNL data, despite the increase, at 5.94%, business loans are a small slice of the industry's total loans.
The number of credit unions offering business lending has also been on the rise, aided partially by industry consolidation eliminating smaller credit unions that did not offer the service, Mike Schenk, CUNA vice president of economics and statistics, told SNL Financial.
At the end of 2007, 2,083 credit unions offered member business lending. By the end of June of this year, that figure had increased to 2,235, according to SNL Financial.
As of Sept. 7, the firm said the top 10 credit union business lending programs in the country as of the second quarter were at:
--$1.75 billion Melrose Credit Union, Briarwood, N.Y. ($1.37 billion in business loans)
--$1.1 billion Evangelical Christian Credit Union, Brea, Calif. ($833 million)
--$1.2 billion Royal Credit Union, Eau Claire, Wis., ($492 million)
--$961 million Beacon Credit Union, Wabash, Ind. ($487 million)
--$4.3 billion Digital Federal Credit Union, Marlborough, Mass. ($462 million)
--$25 billion State Employees’ Credit Union, Raleigh N.C. ($455 million)
--$548 million Progressive Credit Union, New York ($436 million)
--$5.7 billion San Diego County Credit Union ($413 million)
--$4.8 billion Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Bethpage, N.Y. ($412 million)
--$657 million Central Minnesota Federal Credit Union, Melrose, Minn. ($396 million)
