Six strategies to make the most of lending in the coming year

As credit union executives and industry partners set their course for lending in 2021, they share prime areas for growing auto loan and mortgage volume.

1. Reach out to millennials. $840 million/60,000-member Point Breeze Credit Union, Hunt Valley, Maryland, forecasts 5% loan growth for the coming year, with a primary focus on targeted marketing to millennials, a generation that is 20% more populous than GenX, says President/CEO Bernard G. McLaughlin, a CUES member.

Generational differences between millennials and previous generations are either overblown or just plain wrong, McLaughlin suggests. People in their 20s and 30s want to own their own homes just as their parents and grandparents did, and they’re not making a choice to wait to jump into the housing market. Rather, they’ve been saddled with student loan debt and difficult economic conditions.

“Since 2016, the hurdles that millennials have faced are easing,” which makes this generation a prime audience for credit unions, he says. Traditional life cycle purchasing behaviors can guide marketing, from getting that first auto loan to saving for a home, to qualifying for a mortgage and paying for child expenses, and on and on.

 

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