Love and credit unions function in the same manner, said Pope Benedict XVI Tuesday in his third encyclical, “Charity in Truth,” which focused on the economy, business and finance.
“If love is wise, it can find ways of working in accordance with provident and just expediency, as is illustrated in significant ways by much of the experience of credit unions,” he wrote (The Wall Street Journal Blogs July 9).
While the credit crisis continues to dominate the economic news, the country’s 7,848 credit unions turned in a record-breaking performance in new loans granted in the first half of 2009.
In the first two quarters, $144.2 billion in loans were extended to members. This volume was 7.5 percent, or more than $10 billion, greater than the first six months of 2008.
“Credit granting is the core of credit unions’ role. In this stressed economy, what might seem routine is in fact extraordinary performance,” said Jay Johnson, executive vice president at Callahan & Associates.
The total number of loans closed was 9,585,368. The average loan granted was $15,048.
“These loans help members in communities across America, provide the primary source of credit union earnings, and demonstrate the resilience of cooperatives,” said Johnson. “Credit unions’ market share increased in every lending category. In real estate first mortgages for example, this share has more than doubled in the last 24 months to 5.2% at mid-year 2009.”
Members also brought $58.1 billion in new share deposits to credit unions, a growth rate of 8.4% over the past 12 months. This is the largest increase this decade.
Credit unions also maintained their status as the best-capitalized financial institutions with a net worth ratio of 10%. Their overall delinquency was 1.59% on loans 60 days or more past due compared with a rate of 4.35% for FDIC-insured institutions on loans more than 90 days past due.
This is a great BMiVideo you can find on the BMI YouTube site that does a great job explaining the difference between a credit union and a bank. Watch and enjoy! After all, you are a credit union member and you have already experienced the difference first hand!
Pecuniarities is a blog written by two sisters who embrace and explore the concept of frugality. As they discover new ways to save money, they also discovered credit unions. They summarize the advantage of using a credit union quite well in this blog posting. Read it and see how credit unions help you save money!
Friday morning legislation bolstering the popular cash-for-clunkers program was passed giving it an extra $2 billion in hopes of extending a wave of trade-in deals that buoyed car sales and boosted demand for fuel-efficient vehicles in July.
The law extends the program until Labor Day, the first Monday in September, and prevents the 2-week-old incentives from running out.
For your best financing option, contact BMI FCU to get pre-approved before you visit the dealer to trade-in your clunker.
Here is a brief Q&A from the Wall Street Journal in regards to what you need to know about the Cash-for-Clunkers program. There are a lot of questions about whether this program will continue after 8/4/09. These questions should be cleared up by the end of this week. Check back here and we’ll keep you updated on how it shakes out.
