Efficiencyratios are like golf scores – the lower your number, the betteryour game. Golfers with the lowest scores are considered pros, andtheir performances are hard to beat.

Credit union efficiency ratios tell much the same story. Theratio measures how much money it takes a credit union to earn $1 ofrevenue. The less a credit union spends earning each dollar, themore efficient its operation and the better its use of resources.That's good news for both the institution and its members.

According to data analyzed by Callahan & Associates forCU Times, in calculating the Top 20 credit union efficiency ratios, the data was drawn from NCUA's 5300 CallReports for all credit unions with $20 million or more in assets.Analysts measured operating expenses as a percentage of netinterest income, fee income and other operating income. Thecalculations did not include stabilization expenses. Click on thechart above to expand.

Results showed that credit unions of all asset sizes have foundways to operate efficiently. The largest credit union on the list,the $6.7 billion Star One Credit Union based in Sunnyvale, Calif.,came in at 13th with an efficiency ratio of 41.3%. The smallestinstitution, the $23.8 million Consumers Cooperative Federal CreditUnion in Alliance, Neb., ranked 19th with a ratio of 44.2%.Consumers Cooperative also ranked 10th in the Top 20 ROA categorywith a return on assets of 2.99%.

But credit unions in between the two asset extremes have evenmore interesting tales to tell. Old-fashioned values and high-techalternatives proved to be the key to efficiency for two differentinstitutions.

Ask Chris Miltiades, president/CEO of the $58 million Workmen'sCircle Credit Union in Savannah, Ga., the secret to his creditunion's success and his answer would be a “simple” one.

“I'm very old fashioned and I try to keep it simple,” Miltiadessaid. “We do lending based on collateral, capacity, character and credit scores. I don'thave MBL loans with more than a 75% loan-to-valueratio.”

High quality loans and responsible lending practices have been the key toWorkmen's Circle's efficiency ratio of 25.73%, the best among thenation's credit unions according to Callahan's analysis of figurescurrent as of June 30, 2014. The credit union's accompanying ROA of2.72% positions it among the top 20 credit unions in that categoryas well.

The credit union began in the early 1900s as a cooperative forJewish merchants who pooled their funds to lend money to Jewishimmigrants to keep them safe from loan sharks. In the 1950s, themembers converted their cooperative to a credit union to takeadvantage of tax laws, Miltiades said.

The credit union's name is derived from The Workmen's Circle orDer Arbeter Ring, an American Jewish fraternalorganization committed to social justice, the Jewish community andAshkenazic culture, a designation that refers to Jews of Germanorigin, according to the credit union.

Workmen's Circle picked up where the original cooperative leftoff in terms of cultivating a culture of community, quality andeconomy, Miltiades said. Since his arrival in 1997, the executivehas managed to streamline processes, reduce overhead and, mostimportantly, improve earnings and increase services for the creditunion's 1,300 members.

“Our loan-to-share ratio is 89%, up from 40% when I first gothere,” Miltiades said. “I keep us short, I keep us liquid. We havegood capital, and that's a big help there.”

Workmen's Circle's services are limited and aimed atprofitability, Miltiades said. The credit union offers home equitylines of credit, certificates of deposit and money market accounts,which offer the same rate as standard savings accounts. The creditunion does not offer credit cards or other services that wouldprovide a lower rate of return.

“We spend money wisely and we don't have a lot of services butthe services we do have, we do well,” Miltiades said.

Workmen's Circle also keeps its overhead low, to the point whereMiltiades has just four staff members to help him run the creditunion. Overhead control also has contributed to profitability.

“My last job here each week is to take out the trash,” Miltiadessaid.

Read more: Keeping expenses low in pricey SouthernCalifornia …

Credit union values combined with high tech alternatives to helppropel $1.4 billion F&A Federal Credit Union in Monterey,Calif., into the 20th position among Callahan's Top 20 creditunions. F&A posted an efficiency ratio of 45.35% as of June30.

“We do monitor our efficiency but we don't set it as a goal,”Mike Harden, the credit union's EVP and chief information officer,said. “We do whatever is necessary to serve members, and it's moreof the philosophy of how we do business that's contributed ourefficiency.”

F&A serves members of the Los Angeles County FireDepartment, employees of the Agricultural Commissioner/Weighs andMeasures for Los Angeles County and some 51 city and countygovernments. Members tend to be better off financially, especiallyduring southern California's wildfire season, when areafirefighters put in a lot of overtime, Harden said.

The credit union's members have an average of $25,000 incombined deposit accounts, or $40,000 for the average family fundson deposit, he noted.

“It is a business philosophy, but we typically try and pay amongthe highest dividend rates in country, so money rarely leaveshere,” Harden said. “We've continued in an upward growth patternbecause of that.”

The credit union has always kept a close eye on expenses, anidea that led the credit union board in the 1980s to look towardincreased automation in terms of service delivery.

“The board felt the future of financial services was electronicand they wanted to become an electronic credit union,” Harden said.“President/CEO Rich Andrews and I started in 1986, and it's beenrelatively easy to build on that philosophy.”

F&A has been using the same data processing system that itfirst installed in 1982, but its capabilities and sophisticationhas grown exponentially along with Harden and his staff's abilityto manage credit union operations to a very exacting level. Thecredit union has more than 1,000 separate custom software programsthat are used in daily operation and to extract member data, Hardensaid.

F&A operates on what Harden said are very thin margins inorder to pay members higher dividends.When an employee leaves, responsibilities from the open job aregenerally parceled out to remaining staff first before refillingthe position is considered.

The focus on members and electronic service delivery are the twophilosophical and operational factors that has helped the creditunion thrive and maintain a high efficiency ratio, Harden said.F&A shows little sign of slowing down in the future.

“We've redesigned our organizational structure to deliver morebenefits to more members more quickly,” Harden said. ”We're rollingout mobile banking, launching a new website and making otherimprovements focused on delivering benefits. Then, it's a matter ofonboarding the members into other products as quickly aspossible.”