RTÉ - "ICLU Credit Union loan book passes €6 billion for first time since 2008"

The combined loan book of Irish League of Credit Unions members surpassed €6 billion by the end of March.

The league said its affiliated credit unions - which make up 90% of active credit unions in Ireland - issued loans of €685m between January and March. That represents an 11% increase on the final three months of 2024, despite the number of new loans issued falling by 13% to 89,516.

It is the first time the ILCU loan book has passed the €6 billion mark since 2008 - just at the onset of the global financial crisis.

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Our smallest bank ptsb has €21 billion in loans to customers

AIB has €71 billion.

Our smallest bank ptsb has €21 billion in loans to customers

AIB has €71 billion.

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For context most of PTSB's loan book is mortgages and very little personal lending, AIB's personal lending would also be low single digits, a good chunk of their loan book would be business related lending and larger scale company financing and a large bulk of it in mortgages. We need the credit union sector to deliver more financing for mortgage and SME lending, it has over 20bn of assets, more of which can be lent out if they are permitted by the regulations. It is the only financial institution to now have a presence in nearly every large town in the country. It also has very capable team of staff and volunteers to support it.

Hello,

Having spent a few years on the Board of a Credit Union, and put time in on the credit side of things, I disagree with @county - many of the staff, while well intended, are not very capable. They need a lot more compliance, credit and risk management training and experience.

I'm a supporter of the credit union movement and want to see it grow, while continuing it's mutual status, but they've a long way to go, before they get next to near being a true competitor of the Banks.

I would expect the credit union movement to be highly competitive on rates, for both savings and loans, given they don't have to pay shareholder dividends or high salaries to executes, but I don't see them as being particularly competitive - why not ?

MrEarl said:

I don't see them as being particularly competitive

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That depends on the credit union. My own (PSCU) compares very favourably with any alternatives, with the only exception being car finance as the HP/PCP rates are part of the sales package so will normally be cheapest. Their mortgage rate is pretty good at the moment too.

The rates of other CUs are so high I don't understand why anyone would borrow from them.