According to Treasury Department data released on Monday, more than 900 credit unions participated directly in the Paycheck Protection Program. Credit unions made up 18% of the program’s lending institutions yet claimed a much smaller percentage of the actual loans, underscoring the movement’s commitment to local small business borrowers.
The department released data in two formats. For loans exceeding $150,000, the department identified the borrower by name and other information but provided only ranges for the loan amount for example, $350,000 to $1 million. For loans less than $150,000, the department did not identify borrowers by name but did provide the specific loan amount.
Preliminary analysis by Callahan & Associates shows credit unions in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories originated 11,424 loans exceeding $150,000, accounting for 1.73% of all loans in this bucket. Because the specific dollar amount is not included for larger loans, the total balance for loans in this category is likely between $3.24 billion and $7.91 billion.
Credit unions played a larger role in lending to companies that requested less than $150,000, originating 179,085 loans for a total of $4.67 billion. This represents 3.29% of the dollars lent in this category but 4.23% of the borrowers, indicating credit unions originated a lower average amount than their banking peers.
According to data provided in the borrower application, these credit union loans saved 1,144,035 jobs. More than 13% of borrowers did not include employee numbers in their applications, so this number is likely much higher.
Mountain America Federal Credit Union ($9.3B, Sandy, UT) originated more than 7,000 loans, more than any other credit union. Of these, more than 6,560 were less than $150,000. Greater Nevada Credit Union ($1.1B, Carson City, NV) originated the most loans of all credit unions in the larger loan category almost 700 loans more than $150,000.
Check back for more analysis as Callahan dives into the data.