HERSHEY, Pa.-In what might be called the "state of the Pennsylvania state charters address," members of the Pennsylvania Department of Banking expressed a positive review of credit union performance in 2004. Comments were made as part of a State Banking Forum held at the 2005 Pennsylvania Credit Union Association Annual Convention and Exposition. "You've done tremendous work this past year, and I thank you for making my job easier," said Bureau of Supervision and Enforcement Administrator Donna J. Metcalfe. "The numbers that are good are staying good. I'm very happy with where we're going." According to the Department's balance sheet, total assets for state-chartered credit unions increased to more than $6.11 billion in 2004, up from $5.88 billion in 2003-a 4% increase. State assets in 2004 remained roughly 27% of all state and federal credit union assets combined. Total savings/deposits increased 3.4% in 2004 to $5.40 billion (up from $5.22 billion in 2003). Total investments increased 7.3% to $2.34 billion (up from $2.18 billion). And total loans increased 8.6% to $3.22 billion (up from $2.97 billion). On the flip side, the total number of state-chartered credit unions decreased slightly to 76 from 79 because of mergers. The ratio of return on average assets also was down from 0.95 in 2003 to 0.84 in 2004. However, only three credit unions reported negative earnings in 2004, compared with seven having negative earnings in 2003. In another bit of good news, Supervision and Enforcement Director Timothy J. Blase reported that turnaround time for CU examination reports decreased to 21.1 days in 2004; this is down from 21.6 days in 2003 and 29.5 days prior to that. [email protected]