WILMINGTON, NC (March 13, 2019) — Credit union strategy consulting firm Glatt Consulting Group, Inc. announced today that the Credit Union Industry HealthScore, a composite score measuring the health and performance of US-based credit unions, improved on a year-over-year basis for the 20th straight quarter. The current HealthScore, calculated using 4th quarter 2018 data, sits as 5.862 and represents a 3.2% year-over-year score improvement. The continued consolidation of poorly performing credit unions into healthy credit unions, along with overall industry improvements in return on assets, financial efficiency, membership and loan growth, contributed to score gains.
The Credit Union Industry HealthScore measures overall credit union health, which is calculated by scoring/grading credit union performance across 17 different key ratios. Grading is based on a 10-point scale, with 0 reflecting poor performance and 10 reflecting exceptional performance. The Credit Union Industry HealthScore has been calculated and published by Glatt Consulting since 2009.
::Driving Growth::
Credit unions have been on an unprecedented run of year-over-year performance improvement supported in large part by consistent membership growth coupled with loan growth (scores improved by 5.69% and 7.07% respectively). Historically membership growth has been a lagging metric for credit unions, and though it remains the industry’s second-lowest scoring component of the 17 making up the HealthScore, scores are at the upper end of the historical range. Although new industry growth has pressured scores for charge offs (scores for charge offs were in decline from 2016 through the first quarter of 2018), charge off scores seem to have turned a corner, having improved for 3 straight quarters.
::Of Note::
One score to note that has been in decline for 6 straight quarters is the score for Cash and Short-Term Investments to Assets. This ratio is an indicator of the level of cash and liquid assets available to meet share withdrawals or additional loan demand. As loans have grown, and as credit unions have shifted assets from lower yielding short-term investments to loans, this score has gone down. This has generally been beneficial for credit unions, with the tradeoff in lower scores for the ratio being higher scores for Return on Assets.
::Top Performer::
The industry’s highest scoring credit union in the fourth quarter, with a score of 8.97, was Churchill County Federal Credit Union based in Fallon, NV (https://www.myccfcu.org). The credit union holds assets of $49.8M and serves approximately 2,590 members.
The credit union is a reflection of the strength of Nevada overall, which boasts the highest average HealthScore of all of the states. The Nevada HealthScore average is 6.81. The state’s current level of performance is much improved as compared to recession-era data. The state reached a low-point in the fourth quarter of 2010 with an average HealthScore of 4.51.
::Summary HealthScore Data::
With regard to score trends, 13 of the 17 HealthScore components saw year-over-year score gains. They are:
(1) Net Worth: Up 1.95%
(2) Solvency Evaluation: Up 1.72%
(3) Return on Average Assets: Up 24.48%
(4) Efficiency: Up 17.52%
(5) Delinquent Loans to Total Loans: Up 4.09%
(6) Net Charge-Offs to Average Loans: Up 1.86%
(7) Texas: Up 0.53%
(8) Loans to Assets: Up 6.19%
(9) Deposits Per Member: Up 1.97%
(10) Loans Per Member: Up 5.16%
(11) Borrowers Per Members: Up 2.57%
(12) Loan Growth: Up 7.07%
(13) Membership Growth: Up 5.69%
Components that saw a year-over-year decline in score include:
(1) Operating Expenses to Average Assets: Down 2.46%
(2) Cash and Short-Term Investments to Assets: Down 6.46%
(3) Regular Shares to Total Shares and Borrowings: Down 0.07%
(4) Asset Growth: Down 14.15%
A HealthScore data report, including the top 20 credit unions by HealthScore, is attached to this release. We’re happy to serve as a resource on articles related to overarching industry performance, and we welcome your use of the trend material, properly credited to Glatt Consulting. If you have questions about this quarter’s report or CU industry trends overall, contact me at tglatt@glattconsulting.com or (888) 217-5988, ext. 801.
About Glatt Consulting: Glatt Consulting is a credit union consulting company based in Wilmington, NC. Founded in 2006, Glatt Consulting specializes in aiding credit unions in establishing corporate strategy, designing organizational structure and workflow, and working with leadership teams to improve and better leverage organizational culture.
Tom Glatt
Glatt Consulting
+1 (888) 217-5988
tglatt@glattconsulting.com
