Credit unions help local economies grow, regulator says

June 12, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Anthony Grigos, vice president of the Bay Ridge Federal Credit Union, says the credit union was the first to be established in Brooklyn. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

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The nation’s credit unions are doing their part to ensure the continuing growth of local economies, according to a federal regulator who said the unions play a vital role in the country’s financial health.

Debbie Matz, chairman of the board of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) recently issued a statement in which she described the valuable role credit unions play. “Credit unions are continuing to make the loans necessary to grow local economies,” she stated. “As a result, credit unions members are buying houses and cars, and they’re paying for college to give young people a better start in life.”

Bay Ridge Federal Credit Union, which has been in business since the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is pleased to be part of the positive national trend, said Executive Vice President Anthony Grigos. “We are proud to be Brooklyn’s first federal credit union, chartered in 1934, operating successfully for over 80 years, and still growing,” he said.

Bay Ridge Federal Credit Union, which has two Brooklyn offices; at 1750 86th St. and at 1609 Avenue Z; offers a variety of financial services to its members, including home mortgages, home equity lines of credit, commercial real estate mortgages personal loans.

Nationwide, credit unions are also making more loans for auto lending, according to Matz, who said that was a major factor in the overall loan growth during the first quarter of 2015.

Credit Union membership, assets, deposits and net worth all continued to rise, according to the NCUA, http://www.ncua.gov/News/Pages/NW20150602CallReport.aspx an independent federal agency created by Congress to regulate, charter and supervise federal credit unions.

In the first quarter of 2015, loans by credit unions grew in every major category as compared to loans issued during the first quarter of 2014, including: personal loans (up by 29.9 percent), new auto loans (up by 21.5 percent), used auto loans (up by 13.2 percent) , first mortgage loans (up by 8.9 percent), home equity loans (up by 2.5 percent), member business loans (up by 11.6 percent), and non-federally guaranteed student loans (up by 15.2 percent).

And more good news: delinquencies and charge-offs are at their lowest levels since 2007. A charge-off is a declaration by a creditor that a debt is unlikely to be paid. The percentage of loan charge-offs due to bankruptcy at the end of the first quarter of 2015 was significantly below the end of the first quarter of 2014, according to the NCUA’s data.

Meanwhile, membership in credit unions is increasing. Membership in federally insured credit unions grew to 99,969,794 at the end of the first quarter of 2015, an increase of more than 2.8 million members from last year.

Total assets in federally insured credit unions grew to $1.16 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2015, an increase of 5.5 percent from the previous year.

The NCUA operates and manages the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, insuring the deposits of nearly 100 million account holders in all federal credit unions as well as the majority of the state chartered credit unions. Savings are insured to at least $250,000 per account.

For more information about Bay Ridge Federal Credit Union, visit its website at www.brfcu.org.