Capital on a first-name basis: Credit unions step up for small businesses
Main Street’s vitality rests on access to patient, right-sized capital—exactly the niche credit unions are filling as National Small Business Week (May 4-10) kicks off.
Over the 12 months ending December 2024, commercial-loan balances climbed 10.7 percent to $177 billion, the fastest-growing line on the credit-union balance sheet. Industry data shows that credit unions are more likely than banks to finance Black- and women-owned firms as well as rural micro-enterprises.
The Federal Reserve’s 2024 Small Business Credit Survey confirms the value of that approach: applicants at credit unions reported the highest satisfaction scores of any lender type and one of the top approval rates in the study. It also shows 76 percent of firms that sought financing at credit unions were approved for at least some capital—topping every other funding source.
How credit unions put that advantage to work
Small-business lending isn’t a side hustle for credit unions—it’s been baked into their DNA since Congress first authorized Member Business Loans (MBLs) in the Federal Credit Union Act of 1934. Today the cooperative sector still operates under a statutory ceiling: total MBLs may not exceed 12.25 percent of assets or 1.75 times net worth, whichever is smaller.
Loans are the primary way credit unions help small business, but there are others:
Financial wellness, right on the shop floor
In St. Louis, CDFI-certified Alltru Credit Union embedded its no-cost Employee Wellness Benefits Program inside two 30-employee firms—a STEAM-focused childcare center and an in-home health-care agency. Alltru offers on-site credit-builder loans, fee-free HSAs and small emergency lines, helping owners retain talent while giving workers the tools to steady household budgets.
A free “mini-MBA” for Michigan founders
Lake Trust Credit Union recently partnered with Cleary University to launch the Lake Trust Entrepreneurship Institute—six self-paced online courses on market sizing, strategic planning and financial metrics that end in a grant-funded pitch competition. The inaugural 10-week cohort opens May 8 and costs entrepreneurs nothing, reinforcing Lake Trust’s credo: when small businesses thrive, communities thrive.
From combat boots to running shoes—and a storefront
After 25 years in uniform, First Sergeant Will Rivera financed his Radcliff, Ky., specialty shop Running Soles through Abound Credit Union. Rivera told lawmakers that Abound “saw our vision and believed in our concept,” illustrating why pending bipartisan bills would lift outdated lending thresholds and exempt veteran-owned firms from today’s cap.
A $1,500 leap from bankruptcy to 70 seasonal jobs
Iowan Mark Arthofer had only a pickup and a dream when banks said no. AIM Credit Union said yes, extending a modest truck loan that became the foundation of Skyline Storage Trucking. Today the company patents its own equipment, employs 10 full-timers and up to 70 snow-season staff—and Arthofer sits on the credit union’s board, paying the help forward.
The broader ripple: billions for consumers and local treasuries
Credit-union business lending is just the first wave of value. Cooperatives returned $38 billion in consumer financial benefits in 2024 through lower loan rates, higher savings yields and fewer fees. Far from dodging taxes, those same institutions paid more than $14 billion directly—payroll, property, excise—and generated another $27 billion indirectly by keeping dollars cycling locally.
Strip away that cooperative option and communities would lose far more than a lender of last resort. Independent economists estimate that curbing credit unions’ footprint would hike borrowing costs by double-digit billions, shrink GDP and erase hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide.
Bottom line: Every small-business loan a credit union writes multiplies—boosting payrolls, sharpening competitors’ pricing and reinforcing the economic flywheel that keeps Main Street humming. As National Small Business Week spotlights America’s entrepreneurs, their cooperative financial partners deserve a share of the applause.