2021 Financial Highlights

Throughout the year we experienced two more “shutdown” periods, and while gfcu was not directly impacted by these, they presented a lot of uncertainty around local economic conditions. Despite these disruptions, we heard several good news stories from the business community, and saw a busy tourist season, which surely helped our regional economy in 2021. We also continued to navigate a number of business focused financial-aid programs put forward by both the Provincial and Federal Government.

Overall, our financial performance in 2021 was positive. We did see the early stages of what may be considered a shift back to “normal” financial trends, especially when compared to 2020. Most notably, a return to consumer spending and borrowing. This trend was matched and fostered by a personal loan campaign that ran through the 4th quarter of the year. With spending back on, and the emergence of more typical local economic activity, we grew personal loan accounts by approximately $1 million dollars in 2021. The real-estate market remained robust, and despite the lack of housing inventory, we finished off the year with $4.3 million net growth in our residential and consumer mortgage portfolio, translating to modest growth of 3.6%. By comparison, the commercial lending portfolio remained flat, closing out the year essentially where we started. On the member deposit side, we grew by $35 million dollars, or 13% with funds held primarily in savings accounts, tax-free accounts and term deposits.

We spent a full year operating under notable amounts of uncertainty and were relieved to see a return to more stable and predictable banking behaviours among our members. As we keep our eye on inflationary pressure and the inevitable rising of interest rates in 2022, we are pleased overall with the overall outcomes of 2021.