Madison, WI (June 11, 2026) |
The Credit Union Trends Report is a quarterly "pulse check" on the state of the credit union marketplace, often placed in a historical context. The report includes data from two months prior and is published and distributed by Steven Rick from TruStage™.
Q1 2026
- The economy is expected to grow slightly below trend in 2026, while inflation is expected to remain above the Federal Reserve's target.
- Expect credit union loan balances to rise 5.5% in 2026, better than the 4.6% in 2025 but below the 7% long run average.
- Household debt-to-income ratios are back to the levels seen in the 1990s, before the housing and debt boom of 2002-2007.
- New vehicle sales rose 3.7% in March from February to a 16.3 million seasonally-adjusted annualized sales rate but were down 8.7% from the pace set one year earlier.
- The personal savings rate (personal savings divided by disposable personal income) averaged 4.7% in 2025, below the 5% long run average.
- The credit union movement's equity-to-asset ratio ended 2025 at 10.4%, up from the 9.7% reported at year-end 2024.
- Credit union memberships rose to over 145.9 million, up 1.6% from one year earlier.