Credit unions and small businesses are natural partners. Each is rooted in the local community, and each has an outsized impact on the local economy. Many credit unions are themselves small businesses.
In spite of the fact that most credit unions face regulatory limitations on the amount of business loans they can extend, the industry is expanding its footprint. Over the past 10 years, the number of credit unions offering business loans has increased 20 percent. Today, a small business can get a loan at more than 2,000 credit unions. For 18 percent of credit unions, business loans make up at least 5 percent of their total loan portfolio. A decade ago, that figure was just 8 percent.
From the July-August 2018 edition of The NAFCU Journal magazine.