Changes to credit union lending rules proposed by the Central Bank of Ireland last year could help the sector meet growing demand for its mortgage products, the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) has said, amid notable growth in its home-loan book last year.
The organisation, which represents more than 90 per cent of the Republic’s active credit unions, said the value of mortgages issued by its affiliate credit unions rose by 41 per cent in the 2024 calendar year to €759 million.
Between October and December alone – the first quarter of the ILCU’s 2025 financial year – the value of credit union mortgages increased by 7 per cent, the body reports in its latest quarterly report, published on Monday.
The central bank published a review of the credit union regulatory framework in December. It proposed, among other things, lifting the limit on the sector’s overall lending capacity to €8.6 billion from the current €2.9 billion.
In place since 2019, those rules also limit mortgage and small business lending to 7.5 per cent of the credit unions’ total assets or, for larger credit unions that present a business case to the central bank and receive its permission, 15 per cent.
The limits, which do not apply to banks, were introduced in the wake of the financial crisis.
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ILCU chief executive David Malone said the proposed changes could enable the sector to “increase its mortgage loan book to a potential €5.56 billion, from a maximum of €1.9 billion under the current limits”.
He said the changes would help credit unions meet the strong and growing demand for mortgages “and support even more people to buy their own home”.
ILCU-affiliated credit unions had total assets of €18.52 billion at the end of December last, up 3 per cent from €17.99 billion at the end of 2023, noted the report.
The outstanding loan book at ILCU members was valued at €5.96 billion at the end of 2024, up 10.1 per cent from 2023. The proportion of ILCU-affiliated credit union loans in arrears remained near a record low of 2.41 per cent, the organisation said.
Between October and December – typically the slowest period of the year for new lending, Mr Malone said – 103,508 loans were issued by credit unions, down about 3 per cent on the previous quarter.
Last year also marked a substantial increase in the number of electronic payments processed by ILCU-affiliated credit unions, said Mr Malone.
“Looking at the 2024 calendar year in its entirety, credit unions processed in excess of 32 million electronic current account payments, a 17 per cent year-on-year increase, and 59 per cent of these payments were made using contactless methods.
“Furthermore, credit unions processed €2.33 billion in digital transactions, a 28 per cent growth year on year and a fourfold increase over the past five years.”
