Alternative Data Sets And How They Can Help Your Credit Union

For credit unions, there’s no such thing as “too much data”. If there’s data that exists for credit unions to get a better gauge on their role in the local community or in the industry at large, it’s in the cooperative’s best interest to uncover it. While typical industry data like interest rates, consolidation trends, and unemployment rates certainly contribute to a credit union’s understanding of the market, it would behoove credit unions to gain knowledge of the alternative sets that highlight the current state of the industry.

Three primary alternative data sets that provide value to credit unions are non-interest income (NII) data, HMDA, and impact data. NII data allows credit unions to track how income streams change over time, HMDA data gives credit unions a better understanding of the market, and impact data helps to define industry metrics and standards. Callahan recently covered the importance of each data set within your cooperative strategy in the free webinar, Peer-to-Peer Training: Alternative Data Sets For Strategic Analysis, which can be viewed here.

NII Data

NII data consists of two major categories: Fee Income and Other Operating Income. Within these broader categories exist a number of subcategories that, while not listed on a 5300 Call Report, are important in their own right. These subcategories include NSF/overdraft fees, CUSO earnings, mortgage origination fees, and more.

Tracking these subcategories empowers credit unions to better monitor their various NII streams, how these revenues have changed over time, and how their peers compare. Reviewing these trends also can help credit unions develop new, informed strategies to improve overall revenue channels.

View these instructions on how to submit your NII data to better monitor income streams. You’ll also be able to see how your peers use NII to generate earnings and support their members’ needs.

Impact Data

Credit unions play an essential role in the lives of their employees, members, and communities. To better showcase these efforts, the Callahan team has recently added credit union impact to our list of data sets in Peer-to-Peer. We use that data to develop metrics and best practices for credit unions. The ultimate goal of the impact initiative is to empower credit unions to better articulate their value through a mission-focused lens

To submit your impact data:

- - Download the Impact Data template here.
  - Complete the Excel template with your credit union’s data.
  - Refer to this Data Dictionary if you have questions.
  - Email the completed file back to impact@callahan.com.

HMDA Data

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Data is released every quarter and allows credit unions to better gauge the areas that they serve. Understanding HMDA data lets you compare your performance to credit unions, banks, mortgage CUSOs, and other lenders to better build your real estate lending strategy.

There are five primary ways to use HMDA data: