The legal ceiling on a credit union's member business loans: 1.75 times its net worth, or 1.75 times the net worth a well capitalized credit union must hold, if that is less.
The cap is the lesser of two numbers: 1.75 times the credit union’s actual net worth, or 1.75 times the minimum net worth it would need to be well capitalized. That minimum is a net worth ratio of 7 percent, so the second number works out to 12.25 percent of total assets.
Example: a credit union with $500 million in assets and $50 million in net worth. The first number is $87.5 million. The second is 1.75 times $35 million, or $61.25 million. The cap is $61.25 million.
What is measured is the net balance: outstanding balances plus unfunded commitments, less any portion secured by shares or deposits, secured by a lien on the member’s primary residence, backed by a federal or state agency, or sold as a participation without recourse.
Four kinds of credit union are exempt: one with a low-income designation, one that participates in the Community Development Financial Institutions program, one chartered to make member business loans, and one with a history of primarily making commercial loans when the 1998 law passed. A credit union close to its cap often sells participations to make room.
How it shows up in the data here
Not a field here. The site carries each credit union's net worth in dollars and total assets from the 5300, so the ceiling can be worked out by hand, but the net member business loan balance that is measured against it is not in the data, and neither is exempt status. Use credit union commercial loans made to see who is lending now.
Go further
- Credit union commercial loans made: Ranked by commercial loans granted or purchased in the first half of 2026.
- Search credit unions: Every credit union row, with filters.
- How to place a business loan with a credit union: Credit unions make business loans, and some make a lot of them. Three things are different from a bank: the borrower must be a member, most credit unions work under a cap on business loans, and the limit to one borrower is set against net worth.
- How to read a credit union's 5300 call report: Credit unions file their own call report, NCUA Form 5300, every quarter. For commercial loans it says more than a bank's report does: it counts the loans, and it reports what was made during the year.
- A credit union lender's guide to working with brokers: Brokers bring loans a credit union would not otherwise see. Taking them well means four checks before credit: can the borrower join, is there room under the cap, is the loan inside the limit to one borrower, and who pays the broker.
Related terms
- Member business loan (MBL): A credit union's business-purpose loan to one of its own members. The total of these loans is capped by federal law; loans to non-members are counted separately.
- Net worth ratio: A credit union's net worth divided by its total assets, as a percentage. NCUA treats 7 percent or more as well capitalized and 6 percent as adequately capitalized.
- Low-income designation: An NCUA status for a federal credit union when a majority of its members are low-income by the rule's test. It lifts the cap on member business loans.
- Community development financial institution (CDFI): A lender the Treasury's CDFI Fund has certified as having a primary mission of community development and serving a defined target market.
- Loan participation: A loan in which other lenders buy shares from the lender that made it, under a written agreement that keeps the first lender in the loan for its whole life.
- Credit union: A member-owned cooperative lender. It lends to the people and businesses inside its field of membership and files a call report with NCUA every quarter.
Sources
Plain definitions for orientation, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do.