Vancouver-based Central 1 Credit Union (Central 1) saw its first-quarter (Q1) profit fall after the Bank of Canada’s surprise rate cut in January contributed to lower gains on investments.<\/p>\n

Profit for the quarter ended March 31 was $11.4 million compared with $20.6 million in Q1 2014, announced Central 1, the primary liquidity manager, payments processor and trade association for member credit unions in British Columbia and Ontario, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

During the quarter, the yield curve in Canada flattened and credit spreads narrowed in response to the central bank’s rate cut.<\/p>\n

“These factors contributed to net realized gains of $4 million and net unrealized gains of $6.7 million on financial instruments, compared with a total net gain of $20 million the previous year,” Central 1 said.<\/p>\n

Net financial income for Q1 2015 was $15.7 million, compared with $27.5 million a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Return on average equity of slipped to 4.9% vs 9.4% in Q1 2014, reflecting lower earnings and a higher capital base.<\/p>\n

Total assets under administration (AUA) for Central 1 were $13.6 billion in Q1 vs $12.4 billion a year ago.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, B.C.’s credit union system’s total AUA was $62 billion as of Q1, up by $2.7 billion, or 4.5%, vs the corresponding period a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The B.C. system earned $78.5 million before taxes in the Q1, down slightly from $79.2 million in Q1 2014.<\/p>\n

Deposits were $55 billion at the end of the quarter, up by 4.3% from $52.8 billion in Q1 2014.<\/p>\n

Net loans increased by 4.4%, or $2.3 billion, led by commercial and personal mortgages.<\/p>\n

AUA for Ontario’s credit union system totalled $37.1 billion at the end of Q1, up by $3.7 billion, or 11.2%, from a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The Ontario system earned $35.3 million before taxes in Q1, down from $45.9 million in 2014.<\/p>\n

Although financial income improved by 4.1%, non-financial expenses, which include salaries and other operating expenses, increased by 8.6%.<\/p>\n

Deposits were $30.6 billion at the end of Q1, up by 8.7% from $28.2 billion year-over-year, while loans increased by 11% to $31.9 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Assets grow in B.C. and Ontario<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38954,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2312,2318],"tags":[2483],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38954"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298292"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=298292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}