"Lending is very strong," Schenk said.

Credit unions held $460.7 billion in vehicle loans on June 30, up 16.6% from a year earlier and up 2.7% from the previous month. From December to June, auto loan balances grew 12%, beating the previous record set in 1994, Schenk said.

Moreover, credit unions surpassed a third of the automotive lending market for the first time in June based on a comparison of CUNA's data with automotive lending data for all lenders in the Fed's G-19 Consumer Credit Report released Friday.

Banks and other lenders held $904 billion in auto loans on June 30, up 2.8% from a year earlier and down 0.5% from March.

Credit unions' 8.7% gain from March increased their share from 31.8% in March to 33.7% in June, surpassing their previous high of 32.6% in December 2018.

The Fed's G-19 report showed credit cards grew 12% to $67.6 billion from a year earlier, and rose 1.1% from the previous month, compared with an average June gain of 0.7%.

Credit unions' share was 6.2% in June, up 6.3% from both May 2022 and June 2021.

Banks held $988.8 billion in credit card debt, up 15.5% from a year earlier and up 2.5% from May. Banks' share was 90.9% in June, up from 90.8% in May 2022 and 90.0% in June 2021.

Mike Schenk

CUNA's report showed savings have fallen back to more normal growth rates than the double-digit gains during the first two years of the pandemic. Savings were $1.88 billion on June 30, up 7.9% from a year earlier, and rose 0.1% from the previous month.

Weighted by members, the slowdown is even more apparent. Savings per member were $14,009, up 4.2% from a year earlier and fell -0.1% from the previous month.

While higher interest rates have improved net interest margins, they are also raising costs for deposits.

At Sikorsky Credit Union of Stratford, Conn. ($1.2 billion in assets, 56,224 members) shares and deposits were just over $1 million on June 30, up 11.4% from a year earlier and up 2.3% from March 31.

On Thursday, Sikorsky announced it was raising its rates on savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates and IRAs.

"In our current economic environment, we know that financial stress is high," President/CEO Vincent Ciambriello said. "We are committed to our members and want to help by offering financial education, loan products with great rates and savings products with increased rates to help them save more every month."

Vincent Ciambriello

While delinquencies rose among the Top 10 in the second quarter, CUNA's estimates showed they remained stable and low. The 60-day-plus delinquency rate was 0.42% as of June 30, the same as it was since March and down from 0.45% in June 2021.

Credit unions had 134.4 million members in June, up 3.6% from a year earlier and up 0.1% from the previous month.

CUNA's report also showed:

• New car loans grew 14.9% to $164.4 billion from a year earlier and rose 3.3% from the previous month. The average May-to-June gain for new car loans from 2016 to 2020 was 0.5%.
• Used car loans grew 17.6% to $296.3 billion from a year earlier and rose 2.4% from the previous month, compared with an average June gain of 0.9%.
• Unsecured consumer term loans (excluding credit cards) grew 12.3% to $60 billion from a year earlier, and rose 3.9% from the previous month, compared with an average June gain of 2.8%.
• First-lien mortgages fell 1.3% to $538.7 billion from a year earlier and rose 1% from the previous month, compared with an average June gain of 1.3%.
• Second-lien mortgages grew 9.1% to $90.7 billion from a year earlier and rose 5.7% from the previous month, compared with an average June drop of 0.3%.