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Credit unions' loan growth and lending performance are stronger than banks', according to NAFCU's fourth-quarter CU Industry Trends report. In addition, credit unions continue to expand their lending to small businesses while banks' small business lending is stagnant. NAFCU recently shared credit unions' efforts to increase small business lending with Small Business Administration Administrator Linda McMahon.

"Credit unions' commitment to serving their members is reflected in their strong growth," said NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long. "Due to their prudent management, credit unions remain competitive in the midst of a rising rate environment."

The report was sent to member credit unions Thursday; it includes state-level maps highlighting state averages of select performance measures. It also revealed that loan delinquencies are down in every region compared to a year ago.

NAFCU's CU Industry Trends is a member-only quarterly report of the latest trends among credit unions. It is designed to help credit unions identify patterns in industry performance, and to promote comparisons with their own institutions. The report delivers key trends based on NCUA data, both at the industry level and broken down by region, state and asset class.

The NCUA recently released its fourth-quarter data on the credit union industry, showing that federally insured credit unions' membership exceeded 116 million and assets grew 5.4 percent, year over year. The agency Thursday also released its Q4 state credit union data report.

NAFCU's member-only CU Performance Benchmark and Operating Expense reports, providing credit unions with individualized financial performance and expense analyses based on the most recent call report data, were also sent to credit unions this week and are now available for download via NAFCU's website.

These reports, composed by NAFCU's award-winning research team, are useful tools for tracking credit unions' progress and comparing it against peer averages.