Lending

While Georgia credit unions had better average rates on car loans, the state's banks offered better deals on their 15- and 30-year mortgages.

A Tennessee wire manufacturing plant recently earned an energy project of the year award thanks to financing from a MAX, Your Community Credit Union CUSO to provide a lighting grid retrofit at the 298,000 square-foot facility.

Bellco Credit Union doesn't have to pay unrelated business income tax on its income from credit insurance or on royalties from accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

For 85 years, Michigan's credit unions have been offering business loans "in the same prudent and common-sense manner that they have also handled mortgages and personal loans," Michigan Credit Union League President/CEO David Adams recently reminded.

To raise the visibility of credit unions' accomplishments in serving their members, the consulting company Callahan & Associates plans to give a report on the industry's performance to the Obama administration.

Credit unions are finding some of their strongest ever growth in mortgage underwriting by combining high-tech outreach with a high-touch approach to service-both to their members and real estate professionals.