Credit Union lending rose more than 10 per cent over the past year, as the industry continued to focus on boosting its mortgage business.
Data from the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) shows its members had about €6.6 billion in outstanding loans at the end of March. That was up 1.9 per cent compared to the end of December and 9.6 per cent higher than a year earlier.
The value of mortgages outstanding at ILCU members hit €782 million by the end of the first quarter. That was a 24 per cent increase in a year, with home loans now making up 11.7 per cent of credit unions’ overall loan book.
“These results reflect continued strong performance by credit unions across the country,” said ICLU chief executive David Malone.
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“The growth in higher-value lending is particularly encouraging, demonstrating that members are increasingly turning to credit unions not only for day-to-day borrowing needs, but also for major life decisions.”
Credit Unions have been offering mortgages on a widespread basis since 2025, when regulations introduced by the Central Bank of Ireland permitted credit unions to increase the proportion of their total assets that can be used for home loans and business lending.
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That could treble the sector’s capacity for mortgage and business lending to €9.9 billion, the ILCU have previously estimated.
The average loan outstanding hit a new high of €11,319. That “growth in lending is underpinned by strong credit quality”, said the ILCU.
“The overall loan arrears ratio remains at a very low level, overall arrears ratio was 2.21 per cent in Q2 March 2026, close to the record low of 2.20 per cent recorded in Q4 September 2025,” it added.
The loans-to-savings ratio increased to 40 per cent, “reflecting continued progress in the deployment of member savings to support lending activity”, said the ILCU.
Laws introduced in 2023 allow credit unions to refer members to peers for services for the first time. They also enable them to club together to provide loans. And they introduced the concept of a corporate credit union – a credit union for credit unions – to support collaboration and pool certain resources.
Overall, ILCU-affiliated credit unions reported total assets of €19.82 billion, while savings rose 5.3 per cent year-on-year to €16.53 billion. “Liquidity remains strong at 27.91 per cent, equivalent to €4.28 billion in liquid assets,” it said.
The credit unions added about 74,300 members over the past year, with close to 3.4 million members countrywide. About 90 per cent of credit unions are affiliated with the ILCU.
