Compared to banks, credit unions have done a better job at bouncing back from the lending slump brought on by the Great Recession a few years ago.

According to analysis from data tracking firm SNL Financial, loans at credit unions have reached an all-time high. However, loans at banks and thrifts are still more than $200 billion below a second-quarter 2008 peak, the financial data analysis firm said.

As of June 30, loans at credit unions have grown 72.52% to $621.27 billion from $360.12 billion a decade ago, SNL Financial said.

In the first part of the decade, credit unions also experienced an upward trend in their loan-to-deposit ratio aided by a faster pace of loan growth that occurred through the end of 2006, according to SNL Financial.

The scenario changed in 2007 and 2008 when the ratio took a dive. Starting at the end of 2008, the loan-to-deposit ratio dropped by 15.67 percentage points to 67.42% as of June 30, 2013, the SNL analysis showed. Credit unions did see a bright spot during the first quarter of this year when the ratio experienced a 155-basis point increase, the firm said.

The $595.5 million Progressive Credit Union in New York topped the list of having the highest quarter-over-quarter increase in its loan-to-deposit ratio among all credit unions with at least $250 million in assets, according to SNL Financial. Its ratio rose by 11.48% helped by a 5.26% increase in loans against a 1.22% drop in deposits. At the end of the second quarter, business loans made up 97.13% of Progressive's total loans.

Rounding out SNL Financial's list of the top 15 credit unions with the highest growth in loan-to deposit ratio in the second quarter were:

$287 million Fairfax Federal Credit Union, Fairfax, Va.
$1.9 billion University of Iowa Community Credit Union, Iowa City, Iowa
$323.3 million Town & Country Credit Union, Minot, N.D.
$532.9 million Horizon Credit Union, Spokane, Wash.
$607.1 million Leominster Credit Union, Leominster, Mass.
$448.1 million First Community Credit Union, Jamestown, N.D.
$444.2 million Sandia Area Federal Credit Union, Albuquerque, N.M.
$1.1 billion HAPO Community Credit Union, Richland, Wash.
$811.0 million 1st United Services Credit Union, Pleasanton, Calif.
$1 billion Advancial Credit Union, Dallas
$887.9 million Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union, Evansville, Ind.
$632.7 million Tulsa Federal Credit Union, Tulsa, Okla.
$450.1 million People's Trust Federal Credit Union, Houston
$718.1 million CoastHills Federal Credit Union, Lompoc, Calif.

Instant Insights /

All-Time High Reached in Credit Union Lending: SNL

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