Introduction to Zia Credit Union
The credit union first came into existence in 1955 and has been operating for the last 67 years. Zia Credit Union is based in the state of New Mexico and is also the 13th largest credit union operating in the state; this is calculated based on its total assets. The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) insures deposits at credit unions in addition to regulating and supervising them. The NCUA was formed by the U.S. Congress in 1970. The company has a total of 3 branches and employs a total of 56 employees.
Overview of the Credit Union’s Assets and Liabilities
As previously indicated, the credit union currently has total assets of $195 million, which makes it larger than 75% of credit unions in the United States. Zia Credit Union also has net loans outstanding to customers of $121 million and a deposit base of $177 million. Furthermore, the credit union has a loan to deposit ratio of 68% which is higher than credit unions of comparable size. Zia Credit Union’s peer set of credit unions have a loan to deposit ratio of approximately 63%. A lower ratio is better since it means that a credit union’s lending activities are more comfortably covered by its deposit base. Lastly, Zia Credit Union’s loan portfolio mainly consists of mortgages and lines of credit and auto loans which represent 42% and 36% of its loan book and had outstanding balances of $50 million and $43 million, respectively.
Contact and Other Helpful Information
- Main Office Address: P.O. Box 490, Los Alamos, NM 87544
- Website: http://www.ziacu.org
- Phone: (505) 662-4671
- Charter Number: 60467
- Charter Year: 1955
- Employees: 56
- Routing Number: 307084240
- Membership: On average, credit unions in New Mexico each have 24,682 members while across the United States the equivalent figure is 25,779. By comparison, Zia Credit Union has total members of 12,143 which is significantly smaller than the average credit union in the state. Over the past three years, the credit union’s total base of members has increased by 6%.
Zia Credit Union: Financial Overview
Detailed above is a chart showing the progression of four important balance sheet items over the past year for Zia Credit Union. Assets and total loans for the credit union have increased by 15.0% and grown by 3.9%, respectively. In addition, the company’s mortgages and lines of credit, which as noted earlier is the largest portion of the loan book, has grown by 2.5%. Lastly, the credit union’s deposits have increased by 18.0%. ‘Net worth’ is a good way to assess the long-term performance of a credit union as it represents the accumulated value of the entity over time. Importantly this is value that accrues to the credit union’s owners: its members. Zia Credit Union has a total net worth of $15 million. This implies that the credit union has a net worth per member of $1,268 which is below the national average of $1,606.
Overview of the Credit Union’s Performance Metrics
In the above chart we have displayed three statistics that are important in evaluating a credit union’s performance and shown how Zia Credit Union compares on these metrics, in addition to detailing how the credit union performed on each metric in the prior year. Beginning with Zia Credit Union’s return on assets (aka ROA), on this statistic the credit union performs well above the average comparable credit union. When we look at the year over year trends, we can see that ROA has improved substantially given the 0.40% change. A credit union’s ROA is a good way of assessing how well the entity is using its assets to generate returns. The delinquency rate is a measure of what percentage of an entity’s loan book has fallen past due i.e. is delinquent. All else equal, a higher rate implies a worse performing loan portfolio. In the case of Zia Credit Union its delinquency rate is above its peers and over the past 12 months the credit union’s delinquency rate has deteriorated. Finally, the net worth ratio for the credit union is 7.9% which is below its peer group average of 9.7%. This metric has been relatively stable on a year over year basis and stood at 8.0% a year ago. Based on the NCUA guidelines, the credit union is considered to be well capitalized.
Conclusion
Our final rating for Zia Credit Union, after assessing the credit union on what we consider to be the important metrics, is 3.1 out of 5.0, which is above average. As a final note, please remember that our rating is the product of a proprietary scoring methodology which uses nationwide data for credit unions and our survey work. Importantly, none of the work presented herein is intended to be investment advice or advice of any sort and is presented purely for informational purposes.