Commercial Lending Success Not Just for Big CUs: Onsite at CUBG

St. Helens Community CU President/CEO Brooke Van Vleet discusses the CU’s road to commercial lending success.

SAVANNAH, Ga. – When it comes to commercial lending success and a credit union’s size, bigger doesn’t always mean better. Just ask St. Helens Community Credit Union President/CEO Brooke Van Vleet, who described the ups and downs of the credit union’s 30-year commercial lending journey in a breakout session at the 2018 CUBG National Business Conference last week.

The $220 million SHCU, located in the quiet Columbia River-adjacent community of St. Helens, Ore., is grandfathered into the MBL cap due to its long history of commercial lending in the area, and maintains a lending portfolio of approximately one-third commercial, one-third consumer and one-third real estate. From 2013 to 2016, Van Vleet explained, SHCU resolved a few problematic loans, and started placing more emphasis on risk and the credit union’s needs when structuring new loans. The credit union faced some challenges along the way, including a notable loss during the resolution of one particular loan, but it began returning to profitability after 2016, bouncing back from an ROA of 0.52% and net worth of 7.52% in 2016 to an ROA of 1.04%and net worth of 8.79% in 2018 year-to-date.