Some may assume small towns can provide only small opportunitiesfor small credit unions.

But executives and employees at the $82.7 million North StarCommunity Credit Union, based in the rural town of Cherokee, Iowa,which has just more than 5,000 residents, have a differentperspective.

It's an optimistic perspective, backed by vision and hard work,which helped them launch a lending strategy in 2015 that exceededexpectations and represented the first step in the cooperative'sambitious, long-term growth goals of opening new branches andincreasing membership in the remote, rustic corner of Northwest Iowa.

The region stands to reap the broad economic development rewardsof the rising popularity of renewable energy, according to a reportfrom the U.S. Department of Energy. Iowa leads the nation in windpower generation as a percentage of total power of 28%. That numberis expected to increase to 40% by 2020 and triple by 2030,producing enough electricity for the equivalent of 6.3 millionAmerican homes, the DOE reported.

The six-county Northwest Iowa region is one of the mostwind-rich areas of the U.S., according to the group Northwest IowaDevelopment. NSCCU serves these six counties as well as six othercounties that are expected to benefit from the economic expansionof wind power – in addition to its staple industries ofagriculture, advanced manufacturing, food processing, logistics anddistribution – for years to come.

For now, however, the credit union is carving its own path ofgrowth. In the 12 counties it serves, NSCCU operates three branchesthat serve a membership of nearly 10,000.

At the end of 2015, NSCCU posted loan growth of 20.6%, farsurpassing the peer average of about 6.5%.

The credit union approved 3,952 of total new loans that amountedto $31.7 million; $23.8 million represented new dollars with a nettotal of $7.5 million in loan portfolio growth. The majority ofgrowth was 53% in used cars and 24% in unsecured total dollarsthrough a “get your debt under control” campaign. NSCCU also sawits membership increase by more than 1%.

And while new loans also could mean an increased risk ofdelinquencies, the credit union's delinquency rate declined to0.55% in 2015, down from 1.31% in 2014.

The lending campaign was led by NSCCU Vice President Andrew G. Barriger. He was quick to pointout, however, that the initiative was successful because of thevision, support and work of President/CEO Jeffrey L. Hayes, theboard of directors, Marketing Manager Hayley Heims, loan officersand tellers.

Find out how NSCCU succeeded in generating double-digit loangrowth in the Feb. 3, 2016 print edition of Credit UnionTimes.