CUNA’s latest Economic Update video addresses the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on consumer financial well-being and credit unions’ response.

During the presentation, CUNA Senior Policy Analyst Samira Salem discusses recent Morning Consult and CUNA/American Association of Credit Union League survey findings.

The Morning Consult survey results include information on the following:

• How have consumers been financially impacted by the pandemic?
• How are adult consumers coping financially?
• What kinds of support would they find most helpful at this time?

Salem also looks at the results to date of an ongoing CUNA/American Association of Credit Union Leagues survey on how credit unions are responding to support their members’ financial well-being during the pandemic. She finds that credit unions’ pandemic responses line up with consumer financial needs identified in the Morning Consult survey. These include:

• 95% of credit unions surveyed are offering modifications to existing loans, including loan extensions (skip-a-payment), line of credit increases, interest-only loan repayment, reduced or no-interest loans;
• 80% of credit unions are offering new loan products, including deferred payment, reduced or no-interest, reduced or no-interest payroll advance
• 85% of credit unions are waiving and reducing fees to ease the burden on members, including waiving early withdrawal penalty on CDs, waiving skip-a-payment fees, waiving overdraft fees, waiving loan application fees and other waivers
• 64% of credit unions are offering financial counseling, debt consolidation or other services, including financial counseling (39%), debt consolidation (36%) and credit protection (23%);
• Credit unions originated billions of dollars in SBA PPP loans with an average loan size of $65,000;
• Most credit unions are providing some support to their employees, including childcare programs, employee assistance programs and paid leave for employees who have or have a family member with COVID-19

The complete presentation can be found below.