NCUA released its annual report to Congress on the performance of minority depository institution (MDI) credit unions and the agency’s work to support them. MDI credit unions experienced growth in membership, assets, and loans in 2021 as they continued to provide safe, fair, and affordable financial services to their members and communities.

The NCUA supervised 509 MDI credit unions at the end of 2021, compared to 520 at the end of 2020. The slight decline is largely due to credit unions that fell outside the specific requirements for the MDI designation. These credit unions:

• Served more than 4.5 million members, up from 4.3 million in 2020;
• Increased total assets to $58.9 billion from $51.1 billion the year before; and
• Made $34.2 billion in loans compared to $31.3 billion in 2020, primarily concentrated in first-mortgage real estate ($14.9 billion) and vehicle loans ($12.4 billion).

The NCUA’s MDI Preservation Program continued to offer support to MDI credit unions through technical assistance; training; and, if the credit union also has the low-income designation, access to Community Development Revolving Loan Fund grants and loans.

During 2021, the NCUA’s MDI preservation efforts included:

• Approving field-of-membership expansions for 26 MDIs, allowing them to add 775 groups or geographic areas and more than 4.8 million potential members;
• Providing 37 low-income-designated MDI credit unions with approximately $530,000 in technical assistance grants;
• Awarding $25,000 mentoring grants to four credit unions under the agency’s MDI mentoring program to help them obtain technical and other assistance from stronger, more experienced institutions;
• Continuing the MDI Mentoring Cohort, which provided technical assistance, networking, and training to mentoring grant recipients; and
• Working with the U.S. Treasury Department to implement the Emergency Capital Investment Program, which approved 23 MDI credit unions for approximately $723 million in funding.

MDI credit unions are often the only federally insured financial institution available in rural, urban, and underserved communities that have been historically unserved by traditional financial institutions.

A federally insured credit union can qualify as an MDI if more than 50 percent of its current members, the community it services, and board of directors are from one or a combination of the four minority categories defined in federal law: any Black American, Asian American, Hispanic American, or Native American.