The good news is that the auto loan market continues to surge ina big way.

The better news is that credit union market share has increasedover the past year, according to new numbers released by Experian Automotive.

Total credit union auto loans outstanding in second quarter 2014topped $191 billion, a $25 billion increase over the $167 billionposted for the same period in 2013. Only banks posted a higherincrease, rising to $299 billion in loans outstanding, a $31billion increase from $267 billion posted during second quarter2013.

Finance agencies climbed to $126 billion in second quarter, a$24 billion increase over $103 billion the previous year andcaptive automotive finance companies grew to $223 billion in loansoutstanding, a $9 billion jump from $267 billion the yearprevious.

Auto loan portfolios continued to grow across all financialsegments for both new and used vehicle, said Melinda Zabritski, Experian senior director, in a Thursdaywebinar, State of the Automotive Finance Market Second Quarter2014.

The growth is fueled in part by an increasing demand for autoloans, with as many as 85% of all car-buying consumers now relyingon some form of financing to make their vehicle purchases, shenoted.

Loan amounts and length of terms also have inched forward,helping increase auto loan income for credit unions, banks andfinance agencies, according to Experian. Despite the challenges,categories of subprime loans continue to increase in many lenders'portfolios.

Zabritski categorized credit unions and banks as conservativelenders that currently hold the smallest amount of subprimeloans.

In the second quarter of 2014, credit unions held 28.6% in superprime loans, which Experian defined as those with a credit score ofmore than 740, 24.6% in prime loans (680-739) and 28.4% in nonprimeloans (620-679).

The aggregate industry portfolio included on 14.2% in subprimeloans (550-619) and 4.2% in deep subprime (less than 550). Banknumbers were very similar to those of credit unions, Zabritskisaid.

Year-to-year changes showed credit unions declining 39.4% in thehighest risk loan categories, compared to a 34% decline by banksand significantly less by other finance companies over 2013.

Overall, credit unions held 16.69% of the total loan marketshare in second quarter 2014, at 9.1% the highest increase over thesame period in the previous year, according to Experian.

Captives came in second with a 7.8% market increase, while allother categories posted declines of between 3.4% and 9.6%.