The financial consultancy firm SNL Financial reported Texas and California have the largest number of best-performing credit unions in the country.

Its annual listing of the top 50 best performing credit unions found eight in Texas and seven in California in 2013. To be evaluated for a possible place on the list, credit unions had to have total assets of at least $500 million and a net worth ratio of at least 7%, the firm said, adding that this year 432 credit unions nationwide made that initial cut.

The firm evaluated the credit unions on what it called “five core financial performance metrics that focus on growth.” These were member growth, net charge offs as percentage of average loans, operating expenses as a percentage of operating revenue, delinquent loans as a percentage of total loans and market growth.

The $1.5 billion, 152,000-member Idaho Central Credit Uniond in Chubbuck, maintained its place as the best performing credit union from last year but did fall eight basis points of its score from last year, SNL Financial said.

 “Idaho Central's members grew by 20.12% in 2013, up from the 19.75% growth posted in 2012. The institution also enjoyed heady market growth, (deposits and shares growth) — above 20% for the second year in a row,” the firm reported. “On the down side, the company's operating expense as a percent of operating revenue increased by 8.67 percentage points to 63.2%. “

The second-best performing credit union, according to SNL, the $2.3 billion Chevron Federal Credit Union in Oakland, Calif., scored 1.44 points on the back of its 0.08% net charge-off ratio and its 53.19% efficiency ratio. It also enjoyed market growth and member growth in the double digits, SNL reported, and moved up from fifth place last year.

SNL reported the $603 million Schlumberger Employees Credit Union in Sugar Land, Texas, earned the No. 3 spot, this year and credited its 12.57% member growth, 25.28% market growth and net charge-offs equal to only 0.11% of average loans. This year was the first year Schlumberger appeared in the top 10 of SNL's ranking, the firm said.

SNL Financial said the $16.9 billion Pentagon Federal Credit Union in Alexandria, Va., came in at eighth place and was the largest credit union in the top 50 list. Last year it was 34th on the list. PenFed's shares and deposits jumped 9.74% in 2013.

The nation's two largest credit unions, the $54 billion Navy Federal Credit Union in Vienna, Va., and the $27 billion State Employees' Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C., came in 134th and 209th place, respectively, the firm said.

Nationwide, 24 states had at least one credit union in the firm's top 50 list. Texas had 33 credit unions that made the initial cut and California had 68.