The Top 10 generated $1 billion in net income in the three months ending Dec. 31, or an annualized 1.08% of their average assets. ROA was higher than the 0.99% of 2020's fourth quarter, but it was lower than the peak of 1.69% in 2021's second quarter and 1.38% in the third quarter.

Loan loss provisions again played an outsized role in net income as they have since the pandemic began in March 2020. Early that year, credit unions took large provisions, in the wake of the sudden and deep drop in the nation's economy and the depth of uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.

With the help of government stimulus, the economy was much more resilient than most expected. Rather than seeing a spike in delinquencies and charge-offs, consumers, flush with cash, paid down consumer debt. The mortgage market boomed as home sales remained brisk and low rates set off a record wave of refinancing.

So boards that had approved heavy provisions in 2020 began clawing them back in 2021. The highest boosts to earnings were in the first half, allowing ROA among all credit unions to set records going back at least 21 years.

Loan loss provisions among the Top 10 in 2021 were lower than in 2020, but have fluctuated wildly not only individually but also in aggregate.

Provisions in 2020's fourth quarter were $404.3 million, or 0.50% of average assets, falling to $264.6 million in the first quarter. In the second quarter, large clawbacks brought the provisions into an income source worth $241.7 million, or 0.27% of average assets. The third quarter was back to an expense, but merely $30 million.

In last year's fourth quarter, loan loss provisions for the group were $112.6 million, or 0.12% of average assets.

The bigger factors on ROA were a drop in operating income and an increase in net interest income compared with a year earlier.

Fees remained stable at 0.30% of average assets in both fourth quarters, but all other non-interest income fell from 0.96% in 2020's fourth quarter to 0.61% in 2021's fourth quarter.

Net interest margins had been declining since late 2019 for all credit unions, but started showing improvement in the third quarter. For the Top 10, they improved further in the fourth quarter. Net interest was 2.92% of average assets in the fourth quarter, up by 11 basis points from a year ago and 3 bps from the third quarter.

The biggest increase in net interest income was at Pentagon Federal Credit Union of Tysons, Va. ($32.5 billion, 2.6 million members), where it rose 38.4% to $240.9 million. CFO Jill Streit said on Jan. 26 that rising interest rates this year are likely to further ease the interest margin compression that were a drag on earnings for all credit unions over the past two years.

PenFed also had the biggest increase in first mortgage originations, tripling over 12 months to $6.6 billion in the fourth quarter. For the group, they rose 47% to $20.1 billion.

But Streit said she is expecting PenFed's mortgage origination growth to slow to the double-digits this year, as all lenders will see declines from the drop in refinancings.

Top 10 residential home lending, including home equity lines of credit, was $21.9 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $14.4 billion in 2020's fourth quarter and $17.6 billion in the third quarter.

Along with that came a surge in mortgage sales to the secondary market. They more than doubled from $5.2 billion in the third quarter to $13.7 billion in the fourth quarter. For the year, mortgage sales rose 31% to $27.4 billion.

Commercial real estate production (both member and non-member) was $597.5 million in the fourth quarter, down 2% from a year ago and down 57% from the third quarter. Non-real estate originations, which includes personal loans and auto loans, was $29 billion, up 22.6% from a year ago but down 6% from the third quarter.

The Top 10 lineup had one change. Suncoast Credit Union of Tampa, Fla., broke the one million member mark in the quarter, and increased its assets to $14.9 billion to rank No. 10. It, once again, pushed out Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union of San Antonio, Texas ($14.8 billion, one million members) — at least for now.

The shift forced the CU Times data desk into extra hours to ensure that all comparisons were consistent for a Suncoast-inclusive set. That also means aggregate figures from previously published stories will differ slightly from this one.

Some key results for each of the Top 10 were:

1. Navy Federal Credit Union, Vienna, Va. ($153.4 billion in assets, 11.1 million members) had ROA of 1.33%, compared with 1.77% in the second quarter and 1.16% a year ago. Total originations were $23.9 billion, up 18.2%.

2. State Employees' Credit Union, Raleigh, N.C. ($51.7 billion, 2.6 million members) had ROA of 1.08%, compared with 1.12% in the second quarter and 1.02% a year ago. Total originations were $4.3 billion, up 72.4%.

3. PenFed had ROA of 0.95%, compared with 1.24% in the second quarter and 0.40% a year ago. Total originations were $9.9 billion, up 122%.

4. BECU, Tukwila, Wash. ($30.2 billion, 1.3 million members) had ROA of 0.53%, compared with 0.97% in the second quarter and 1.11% a year ago. Total originations were $3 billion, up 29.9%.

5. SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, Santa Ana, Calif. ($27 billion, 1.2 million members) had ROA of 0.74%, compared with 0.76% in the second quarter and 0.73% a year ago. Total originations were $1.9 billion, up 23.1%.

6. Golden 1 Credit Union, Sacramento, Calif. ($18.3 billion, 1.1 million members) had ROA of 0.53%, compared with 0.78% in the second quarter and 0.47% a year ago. Total originations were $1.4 billion, down 3.3%.

7. America First Federal Credit Union, Riverdale, Utah ($16.8 billion, 1.2 million members) had ROA of 1.26%, compared with 1.84% in the second quarter and 1.68% a year ago. Total originations were $2.5 billion, up 17.7%.

8. Alliant Credit Union, Chicago ($15.2 billion, 646,111 members) had ROA of 1.21%, compared with 0.37% in the second quarter and 1.00% a year ago. Total originations were $1.4 billion, down 2.4%.

9. First Tech Federal Credit Union, San Jose, Calif. ($14.9 billion, 657,642 members) had ROA of 0.81%, compared with 1.64% in the second quarter and 0.75% a year ago. Total originations were $1.6 billion, up 12.2%.

10. Suncoast Credit Union had ROA of 1.09%, compared with 1.40% in the second quarter and 0.72% a year ago. Total originations were $1.6 billion, up 34.9%.