The short answer
Form 5300 is the quarterly call report every natural person credit union files with NCUA. For a loan searcher the useful parts are the commercial loan lines, which give the number and balance of loans by kind, the year-to-date lines, which give commercial loans made since January 1, the participation lines, and net worth. NCUA publishes every credit union's data in quarterly files.
What Form 5300 is
NCUA’s rule at 12 CFR 741.6 says natural person credit unions “must file a Call Report with NCUA quarterly in accordance with the instructions in the NCUA Form 5300.” Federal credit unions and state-chartered credit unions with federal share coverage both file it. Report dates are the last day of each calendar quarter.
There are 4,299 NCUA 5300, credit unions on this site, read from the report dated 2026-06-30.
Where to get it
NCUA’s Call Report Quarterly Data page. NCUA posts one compressed file for each quarter. The page says the data files “are in comma delimited text file format that is suitable for importing into a database or spreadsheet.” Inside are tables of account values keyed by charter number, a table named FOICU with each credit union’s name and address, and an Account Description table that says what each account code means and whether it is still active.
NCUA’s Research a Credit Union tool. Search by name or charter number to see one credit union’s profile and download its filed report.
This site. Each credit union page prints the commercial lines described below with the report date. The data dictionary lists the account code behind every field.
Account codes are what make the bulk files usable. A value is identified by a code such as Acct_010 for total assets or Acct_997 for net worth. NCUA adds and retires codes when the form changes, which is why the Account Description table marks each one active or inactive.
The lines that matter
Commercial loans outstanding, by kind. The form reports the balance and the number of loans for each kind of commercial loan: construction and development, farmland, multifamily, owner-occupied commercial property, other commercial property, and commercial and industrial loans. A number of loans is something a bank call report does not give you. Divide the balance by the count and you have an average loan size.
Commercial loans made year to date. For the same kinds, the form reports the number and amount of loans granted since January 1. This is a record of lending during the year, reset each January. A June report holds six months. A December report holds the year.
Participations. The form reports loan participations bought and held, and the amount bought year to date. On this site 1,168 NCUA 5300, credit unions reported buying participations.
Member business loans. Under 12 CFR 723.8(e), the net member business loan balance for Form 5300 reporting is the outstanding balance plus unfunded commitments, less portions secured by shares or deposits, by a lien on a member’s primary residence, carrying a federal or state agency guaranty, or sold as a participation without recourse. That net figure is what is measured against the cap.
Net worth. See the next section.
Across credit unions the commercial book on this site is $202B NCUA 5300, . Of that, $48.0B is multifamily and $87.9B is non-owner-occupied commercial property.
Looking for a lender now? Find lenders for this in your state or see Credit unions with business loans state by state.
Net worth and the net worth ratio
A credit union has no stock. Its capital is what it has earned and kept. Under 12 CFR 702.2, net worth means the retained earnings balance at the most recent quarter end under U.S. GAAP, with additions for certain subordinated debt of low-income designated credit unions and for credit unions acquired in a combination.
The net worth ratio is “the ratio of the net worth of the credit union to the total assets of the credit union, expressed as a percentage rounded to two decimal places.” Under 12 CFR 702.102 a credit union is classified well capitalized if its net worth ratio is 7.0 percent or greater and, if it is a complex credit union, it also meets a second capital measure.
For a loan searcher net worth matters for two limits, both covered in placing a business loan with a credit union:
- the limit to one borrower, the greater of 15 percent of net worth or $100,000;
- the aggregate cap on member business loans, the lesser of 1.75 times actual net worth or 1.75 times the minimum net worth the statute requires.
This site does not rank credit unions by capital and does not describe any credit union’s condition. Net worth appears as an input to the two estimates and nothing more.
A worked read
Worked example (hypothetical). A credit union’s June 30 report shows net worth of $60,000,000. Its commercial lines show 90 multifamily loans with a balance of $108,000,000, and year-to-date multifamily loans granted of 12 loans for $21,000,000.
Average loan held. $108,000,000 divided by 90 is $1,200,000.
Average loan made this year. $21,000,000 divided by 12 is $1,750,000. The loans made this year are larger than the loans on the books, so the credit union has been moving up in size.
Pace. Twelve loans in six months is two a month. A lender doing two apartment loans a month has a working process for them.
Ceiling. 15 percent of $60,000,000 is $9,000,000. A $3,000,000 request is one third of the ceiling and close to twice the average loan made this year. It is a reasonable call to make. A $12,000,000 request is over the ceiling unless the credit union sells a participation.
None of this says the credit union will make the loan. It says the request is the kind of thing its filings show it doing.
How this site’s fields map to the report
Every credit union field in the data dictionary names its account code or codes. Where the site adds two codes together, the dictionary shows both. Several kinds of loan are reported in two parts, loans made to members and interests bought from other lenders, and the site adds the parts. Derived figures, such as the estimated cap and the share of it used, show their formula. The methodology explains each choice.
If a figure on a page looks wrong, compare it with the credit union’s filed report for the same date and tell us through the report form.
What it can and cannot say
It can say: how large the credit union is, how much of each kind of commercial loan it holds and how many, what it made this year, whether it buys participations, and its net worth.
It cannot say:
- Who can join. Membership is not in the financial data.
- Individual loans. There are no borrowers, addresses, rates or terms. For multifamily and rental-house loans, a credit union large enough to report under HMDA appears there loan by loan.
- Policy. The credit union’s own limits and the kinds of property it will lend on are in its loan policy, which is not public.
- Appetite. A count of loans made through June is a fact about the first half of the year.
- Clean year-over-year reads in every case. A merger moves the balances. A form change can move a figure from one account to another.
Our calculation from public filings, as of the report date. Not a rating, and not a statement about safety or deposits.
Questions to put to the credit union
- Your report shows loans of this kind made this year. Are you still adding them?
- What is the largest loan of this kind you have closed recently?
- Do you underwrite commercial loans yourselves or through a service organization?
- Do you have room under your member business loan cap, or are you exempt from it?
Terms used here
- NCUA 5300 call report: The financial report every natural person credit union files with NCUA each quarter. It is the public source for what a credit union lends and holds.
- NCUA charter number: The number NCUA uses to identify a credit union in its records and call report files. It is the surest way to tell apart credit unions with similar names.
- 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.
- 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.
- Member business loan cap: 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Credit union single borrower limit: The most a credit union may lend in commercial loans to one borrower or group of associated borrowers: the greater of 15 percent of its net worth or $100,000.
Sources
Every rule and outside figure above comes from one of these, opened on . Dates are the source's own. Figures from this site's data carry their own source and date beside them.
- 12 CFR 741.6, Financial and statistical and other reports (NCUA): quarterly Call Report on Form 5300, retrieved .
- Call Report Quarterly Data (NCUA), retrieved .
- 12 CFR 702.2, Capital adequacy, definitions (NCUA): net worth and net worth ratio, retrieved .
- 12 CFR 702.102, Capital classification (NCUA), retrieved .
- 12 CFR 723.8, Aggregate member business loan limit (NCUA): how the net balance is figured for Form 5300, retrieved .
Next step: check the record
- Credit unions that make business loansEach credit union's commercial loans held and made this year, from Form 5300.
- Credit unions by commercial loans madeSorted by commercial loans made so far this year. Loans made, not balances held.
- Data dictionaryEach credit union field on this site and the Form 5300 account it comes from.
Keep reading
- Legal lending limit estimate: The most a bank can lend to one borrower, from public capital figures. Always an estimate.
- How to read a bank call report as a loan searcher: Every bank files a call report each quarter. One schedule in it lists the bank's loans by kind. Read that schedule and you know what the bank holds. You still do not know what it made last quarter.
- 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.
- Loan participations, explained: A participation lets one lender make a loan that is too large for it to hold alone. The borrower signs with one lender. Behind that lender, others own pieces of the loan and share its risk.
- 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.
- How to read HMDA data for multifamily and investor loans: HMDA is the one public file that lists individual apartment and rental-house loans by lender, amount, county and year. It covers loans on dwellings only, and not every lender reports.
Questions people ask
How is Form 5300 different from a bank call report?
It is a different form filed with a different regulator. For commercial loans it reports the number of loans as well as the balance, and it reports loans made year to date by kind. A bank call report gives balances only.
What is net worth, and why does it matter?
Under 12 CFR 702.2, net worth is in the main the credit union's retained earnings. The business loan cap and the limit to one borrower are both set against it, so it tells you how large a loan a credit union can hold.
Does the report say who can join the credit union?
No. The financial data does not describe the field of membership. Ask the credit union or read its membership page.
Cite this
Source: The Lender Report, How to read a credit union's 5300 call report, https://lender.report/guides/how-to-read-an-ncua-5300-report/, data as of November 11, 2026.
General information, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do; ask it for the policy in writing.
Source and date appear beside each figure. Banks report balances, not loans made. Loans made come only from HMDA and SBA files. We do not audit filings and can make errors joining them. Report a problem