Portfolio diversification also could mean looking beyond traditional, commercial real estate lending that credit unions automatically think of in the MBL market.

"There is a whole range of lending opportunities at various rates and risks that kind of help balance out the whole lending portfolio," Bilke said. "There's financing the operation of a business, there's floor plan financing, there are factoring opportunities."

If the U.S. economy continues to grow, Tayloe said he expects the MBL market to continue its growth trajectory this year, staying in line with trends seen over the past 10 years.

What may also fuel the growth of loan participations are the NCUA's proposed changes to its MBL regulations. In addition to non-member loan participations not counting against the MBL cap, the federal agency is proposing to remove loan-to-value limits, eliminate aggregate limits on construction and development lending, cut minimum borrower equity on construction and development lending, and allow credit unions to decide the necessity of personal guarantees.

"[The] NCUA's new proposed MBL rules, which, if finalized close to what was proposed, will provide significant regulatory relief and may encourage a higher number of credit unions to enter this lucrative market," Tayloe said. "We have no idea when the new rules will be finalized, but even if they were finalized let's say sometime in the summer of 2016, it will probably take until 2017 or later before we see significant movement."

Nevertheless, while these proposed rule changes and expected MBL growth are positive developments for the industry, Easley noted credit unions should be aware of some challenges.

In addition to the continuing impact of non-traditional options such as crowd funding and peer-to-peer lenders, large banks as well as regional and community financial institutions have indicated that lending in the middle market space, below $10 million, is a key part of their 2016 strategy because large urban areas have become overbanked, according to Easley.

"This may be an attractive alternative for some borrowers given slight variations in banking regulations from credit unions," Easley said.

What's more, while the Fed has increased interest rates and may continue to do so throughout 2016, the commercial and business lending markets have pushed rates lower as banks enter new markets to increase market share in targeted areas.

"While this may be a short-term phenomenon, this has impacted some key market areas within the credit union industry and the ability for credit unions to compete with large banks that seek market share," Easley said. "Recent losses for member business loans due to bank competition have been observed within Northern California, Texas, Colorado, Chicago and part of the Mid-Atlantic states where rates – considerably lower than those offered within our industry – were extended to borrowers by large banks."

In addition to the proposed MBL regulatory changes, industry experts foresee changes in the way regulators view their approaches to their jobs and places in the industry.

Particularly when it comes to member business lending, Tayloe said regulators are gradually shifting from a prescriptive-based approach to a principles-based approach.

"That's really interesting because it's a change in philosophy," Tayloe explained. "It's different in the way you think about regulators, who traditionally use a checklist and see if you are meeting these requirements. Regulators are moving to more of a principles-based approach, which is, do you have control over your processes, and more subjectively, are you lending in a responsible and high quality way."

Overall, Tayloe said his credit union clients see this as a positive trend, but that they are also somewhat apprehensive about it going into the New Year because principles-based approaches to the examination process are becoming more subjective.

Bilke said he has seen regulators become smarter about the examination process.

"They're getting better guidelines on what to ask for," he said. "They are putting more pressure on the credit union to do their vendor due diligence to make sure that as many risks as possible are mitigated, knowing that it is impossible to mitigate all of the risks, but being able to close the obvious channels."

While credit unions have become accustomed to managing in a low interest rate market, they now have to adapt to managing in a higher interest rate environment.

"You are going to see more competition for loans but you are also going to see probably less loans due to higher interest rates because certain borrowers will be priced out of some markets," Easley said. "It's about managing your expenses on one side, and as technology solutions come available, how you can use that to your advantage competitively and operationally."

Bilke added he is seeing a big push from financial institutions to provide self-service options for members.

"You know you get the efficiency by delivering channels for self-service that are very low cost in comparison to somebody walking in a branch or even contacting a call center," Bilke said. "So, from that aspect of it, everybody is going to continue to invest in technology to get efficiency for those enabled channels."

Bilke said mobile technology is driving the demand for self-service that would allow, for example, a small business owner to activate or deactivate his or her credit cards.

The self-service offering also makes sense for small business owners who are extraordinarily busy throughout the day and need to catch up on their banking after regular business hours.

"[Self-service allows] everything from managing and posting payrolls to doing ACH accounts payables to advanced bill pay capabilities, and can even be used on the lending side where somebody can get a status on their loan via their mobile phone anytime," Bilke said. "It's 24/7. You've got people applying for loans or doing their home banking in the middle of the night and you've got business owners doing their banking in the middle of the night as well."