Membership in federally insured credit unions grew to more than101 million at the end of Q2 2015, and cooperatives continued togrow loans to support the new memberships, the NCUA reported Thursday.

The agency's announcement came one year after CUNA revealedcredit unions surpassed 100 million memberships, based on datacollected by the trade association in its June 2014 “Monthly CreditUnion Estimates.”

According to an NCUA media release, membership in federallyinsured credit unions grew to 101,084,138 at the end of Q2 2015,which represents an increase of more than three million from theend of Q2 2014. The numbers are based on Call Report data submittedto and complied by the agency as of June 30, 2015.

“Across America, there's a growing recognition that creditunions offer solid value to their members,” NCUA Board ChairmanDebbie Matz said. “More people see credit unions as an affordablefinancial services alternative. Credit unions continue to increaselending while taking steps to shed certain investments that wouldpose risk when interest rates inevitably begin to rise. All thesetrends are signs of a robust system.”

The agency reported steady auto and real estate lending duringQ2 2015 – according to the release, total credit union loansreached $745.2 billion, an increase of 3.2% from Q1 2015 and 10.6%from a year ago. New auto loans grew to $92.8 billion, up by 3%from the end of Q1 2015 and 19.5% from the end of Q2 2014. Firstmortgage loans at federally insured credit unions reached a totalof $306.2 billion, up by 3.1% from the previous quarter and 9.6%from the previous year, the NCUA reported.

Member business loans and payday alternative loans also grew inQ2 2015, rising to $54.4 billion for a 2.9% increase over Q1 2015and 11.2% bump over Q2 2014, and to $35.2 million for a quarterover quarter increase of 18.2% and year over year rise of 18.8%,respectively. Student loans declined by 0.6% to $3.3 billion fromQ1 to Q2 2015, however, compared to one year ago, they jumped by13.5%.

Loan losses also fell during the second quarter, according toNCUA data. The net charge-off ratio declined to an annualized 46basis points year to date from 49 basis points at the end of the Q22014. However, the delinquency ratio at federally insured creditunions rose slightly in Q2 2015 to 74 basis points, up from 69basis points the previous quarter but still well below the 85 basispoint level in the second quarter of 2014, the agency said.

Other findings in the NCUA's report include a decline in totalinvestments by federally insured credit unions to $279 billion atthe end of Q2 2015, down by 4.2% from the end of Q2 2014; and arise in the overall loan to share ratio to 75.5%, which reflects a2.2 percentage point increase since last quarter and a 3.9percentage point increase since last year.

In addition, the number of federally insured credit unions fellto 6,159 at the end of Q2 2015, a decline of 270 or 4.2% in thepast year, the NCUA said.