Vancity announces 2019 financial results

Vancity today announced its 2019 financial results and stated it will return a total of $18.3 million – 30 per cent of its net profits – back to community in 2020 through its Shared Success program. The credit union added $800 million to its total assets and welcomed nearly ten thousand new members. Balance sheet assets grew to $23.1 billion in 2019, representing a 1.2 per cent increase on the previous year. Total assets plus assets under administration are now $28.2 billion, a 3 per cent increase or $800 million, over 2018.

“The end of 2019 closed out a decade that finished the way it began: with our world facing uncertainty. The first few months of 2020 have pitched our communities into an unprecedent crisis,” said Tamara Vrooman, Vancity President and CEO. “We have grown over the past decade and in doing so have built up strong reserves. And right now, when our members need us most, we can use that strength to launch a range of additional supports for our members, while also protecting the strength and stability of our credit union.”

“It has been an incredibly difficult period for many people and small businesses who face financial turmoil from the impacts of COVID-19. Now is the time to take the reserves we’ve built up and put them where they can do the most good: In the hands of ordinary people, and the small and medium sized businesses, non-profits and social enterprises that support the real economy,” continued Tamara.

Supporting the most vulnerable in our community

To date, Vancity’s response to COVID-19 has included a range of initiatives:

• In a joint partnership with the Vancouver Foundation, United Way Lower Mainland, and others created a new Community Response Fund to rapidly deploy essential relief to organizations that provide frontline services to people and organizations that are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. The Fund currently stands at $6.8 million (as of April 24).
• Created the Unity Term Deposit, an investment product that raised $200 million to support the people, small businesses and non-profits that are most affected by the social and economic fallout of COVID-19, while guaranteeing investors a 3 per cent return.
• From the Unity Term Deposit, created the Unity Pivot Business and Bridge loans for small businesses and self-employed people who need to adapt due to the pandemic. Loans are being offered at 0% interest for six months, with no payments required during this period either.
• Temporarily cutting credit card interest rates to 0 per cent for those facing financial difficulty as a result of COVID-19.
• A comprehensive loan and mortgage deferral program that does not impose penalties for deferral, does not compound interest on interest, and includes credit card interest rate reductions. Vancity deferrals will not impact members’ consumer credit ratings.
• Vancity’s Pigeon Park Savings is providing financial services to people with low incomes living in the DTES, and working closely with the City of Vancouver and officials from the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction to protect the health of the community.

To calculate how much profit Vancity generates with every dollar of members’ equity, the credit union uses a measurement called return on average member’s equity, or ROME. This measurement shows the returns or business results that Vancity generates after taxes and distributions to members and communities and in 2019, ROME was 4.5 per cent.

Every year, Vancity returns 30 per cent of net income back to community through its Shared Success program. Before considering the Shared Success distribution, ROME in 2019 was 5.7 per cent. Over the course of 2020, Vancity will allocate $18.3 million of its 2019 income for Shared Success contributions in the form of grants and donations to members and the broader community, over and above the costs of COVID-19 response measures. Since 1994, Vancity has returned more than $360 million to members and communities through the program.

Vancity’s net results were positive overall, though lower than 2018 due to external factors beyond the credit union’s control. Income before distribution and tax in 2019 was $93.5 million.

Vancity posted particularly strong results in areas related to values-based assets, such as affordable housing and environmental sustainability. The credit union tracks its social impact performance by measuring Triple Bottom Line Assets under Administration (TBLAA). The measurement shows how much of the credit union’s capital is allocated towards addressing key social challenges. In 2019, Vancity’s TBLAA reached $7.8 billion of its total assets and grew at a faster rate. Growth of TBLAA in 2019 was 113 per cent of the credit union’s net overall growth.

“Our 2019 results are testament to the fact that Vancity can build our members’ financial well-being and improve our world at the same time,” said Jan O’Brien, chair of Vancity’s board of directors. “Vancity was founded to further economic inclusion, to put our profits to work for ordinary people. This crisis makes that more important than ever.”

About Vancity

Vancity is a values-based financial co-operative serving the needs of its 570,000 member-owners and their communities, with offices and more than 50 branches located in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Victoria, Squamish and Alert Bay, within the territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka'wakw people. With $35.5 billion in assets plus assets under administration, Vancity is Canada's largest credit union. Vancity uses its assets to help improve the financial well-being of its members while at the same time helping to develop healthy communities that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.