An Examination of Fee Income, June 2018

A recent article in the New York Times looked at the increased reliance on fee income by credit unions.

As of June 2018, half of credit unions with at least $100 million in assets reported a fee income to interest income ratio of at least 18.3 cents in fee income to every dollar in interest income.

Three credit unions reported having a fee income to interest income ratio in excess of 100 percent. These 3 credit unions were St. Louis Community Credit Union (St. Louis, MO) at 156.9 percent, Geovista Federal Credit Union (Hinesville, GA) at 110.7 percent, and First South Financial Credit Union (Bartlett, TN) at 107.9 percent.

The median fee income to interest income ratio by asset size grouping appears to be inversely related to the size of the credit unions.

In addition, the median fee income at credit unions with at least $100 million in assets was $74.75 per member (mid-year data was annualized).

There were 418 credit unions with at least $100 million in assets reporting a fee income per member in excess of $100 (data annualized). Twenty-six of these credit unions had fee income per member of at least $200.

The following table lists the 10 credit unions with the highest fee income per member.

Once again, there is an inverse relationship between fee income per member and the asset size of the credit union.

For example, median fee income per member was $41.66 for credit unions with at least $10 billion in assets, while median fee income per member for credit unions with between $100 million and $249.99 million was $74.31.