ARLINGTON, Va.–In a phrase that would have seemed completely foreign just a few years ago, “loan growth decelerated to 10.8% in May year over year,” according to the latest NAFCU CU & Economic Monitor.
But even that “slowdown” in lending came with a caveat, with NAFCU saying its survey of member CUs projects first mortgage growth to build over the next year.
Among other findings in the NAFCU survey data:
- Member growth increased to 3% year over year.
- Share growth fell to 4.7% year over year.
- The aggregate net worth ratio increased by four BPs to 10.85%.
- Delinquencies continued to fall in May and are at their lowest point in more than 10 years.
Meanwhile, NAFCU also polled its membership as part of the CU & Economic Survey on their practices and policies around mortgages. Among the findings:
- Over half of survey participants sell mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and/or Freddie Mac and the percent of loans sold to the GSEs is expected to increase in 2015.
- The average board policy restricts the percentage of real estate loans held in portfolio to 35% of assets.
- 59.3% of respondents retain servicing rights on all loans sold.
- Secondary market sales are strong, with 86.7% of respondents selling loans to government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) or other means.
- When asked about their plans for 2015, respondents said they plan to sell more loans to the GSEs (27.8%) than to other purchasers (25.1%).