Short answer: Every federally insured natural-person credit union files NCUA Form 5300 each quarter, due by 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern on the 30th of January, April, July and October. It's free: NCUA's quarterly data files hold every filer, and Research a Credit Union and the Financial Performance Report show one credit union at a time. Read the Statement of Financial Condition and Statement of Income and Expense first, then Schedule A for delinquencies and charge-offs, then Schedule G for the net worth ratio (7.0% or more is well capitalized).
When a credit union starts winning your car loans or CD customers, its call report shows how it pays for that growth and how much capital sits behind it. The 5300 has its own layout and vocabulary, so we take its parts in the order we read them and flag the lines that trip up bankers.
Who files it and when
Every federally insured natural-person credit union files Form 5300 each quarter under NCUA's reporting rule; corporate credit unions file Form 5310 monthly instead. The deadline is 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern time on the 30th of January, April, July and October, close to the bank rule of 30 calendar days after quarter end.
Filed numbers aren't frozen. Credit unions submit corrections to previously reported quarters through NCUA's CUOnline system, so a figure you saved last quarter may not match today's file. The same system takes the Credit Union Profile, NCUA Form 4501A, with operational information such as branch locations, contact information and member services. It must be updated within 10 days after an election or appointment and within 30 days of other changes.
Where to get it free
For a county, a state or the whole system, download NCUA's quarterly call report data files: zipped, comma-delimited text labeled final data, with June 2026 the latest quarter. An account description table, AcctDesc.txt, decodes the account codes and marks each one Active or Inactive, and a Credit Union Branch Information table lists offices. Count before you compare. The June 2025 NCUA data we load for Deposit Share held 4,460 credit unions, 90 of them privately insured, so a raw-file total won't match NCUA's figures for federally insured credit unions.
For a few fields across many credit unions, NCUA's Custom Query tool saves you the whole file. For one credit union, use Research a Credit Union to download its call reports or request its Financial Performance Report.
The Financial Performance Report is where we'd start on a single competitor. NCUA produces it from call report data, with pages such as Key Ratios, Supplemental Ratios, Historical Ratios, Assets, Income Statement, Loans, Investments, Liquidity and Graphs, and peer ratios for credit unions of similar asset size. Read the ratio definitions in the guides on NCUA's FPR page before you set an FPR ratio beside one you built from the raw files.
The parts, in the order we read them
We start with the balance sheet and earnings, then the loan book, investments and liquidity, then funding and capital. Headings use NCUA's official names.
1. Statement of Financial Condition
The balance sheet tells you how big a competitor is and what it's made of. Size also sets the reporting load: more than $500 million in quarter-end total assets makes it a complex credit union, which brings Schedules H and I into play. Federally insured credit unions held $2.50 trillion of total assets in the second quarter of 2026. Before comparing reserves, note which allowance account a credit union uses; NCUA's FAQ refers to both an Allowance for Loan & Lease Losses and an Allowance for Credit Losses.
2. Statement of Income and Expense
This answers how the credit union makes money and what its members cost it. What members earn on their accounts runs through Dividends on Shares, with a separate Interest on Deposits line; NCUA's FAQ covers which belongs where.
Some 5300 lines are explicitly year to date, such as loans granted year to date on Schedule A (NCUA FAQ), and a bank's Schedule RI is calendar year to date. Confirm the period printed on the credit union's income statement before you annualize a figure or subtract one quarter from the next.
Taxes change the comparison. A federal credit union's income is exempt from federal taxation and state-chartered credit unions are exempt under section 501(c)(14)(A), so set a credit union's return on assets beside a bank's pre-tax return, as our ratio comparison guide explains. NCUA data reported by CU Today put the system's annualized return on average assets at 0.91% in the second quarter of 2026.
3. Schedule A, Specialized Lending
Schedule A carries most of the credit analysis in eight sections: Loans; Delinquent Loans; Charge-Offs/Recoveries; Other Loan Information; Indirect Loans; Loans Purchased and Sold; 1- to 4-Family Residential Real Estate Loans; and Commercial Loans. Start with Section 1, since NCUA's FAQ says most other sections tie back to it.
Sections 2 and 3 show how much of the book is going bad and how much is already gone. Delinquent commercial loans have their own part of Section 2, and a loan goes on nonaccrual when full collection is in doubt or after 90 days past due (NCUA FAQ). NCUA put the system delinquency rate at 96 basis points in the second quarter of 2026. The FDIC's headline bank measure for the quarter, 1.44%, counts loans 30 or more days past due or nonaccrual, so check how any credit union rate is defined before you set it beside a bank figure.
Sections 7 and 8 cover the lending community banks know best. Section 7 reports fixed-rate real estate loans by original maturity, not remaining maturity (NCUA FAQ), so a seasoned fixed-rate book looks longer than what's left of it. Section 8 covers commercial loans, and NCUA calls commercial loans and member business loans distinct definitions that aren't mutually exclusive, so don't add them together. If you meet credit unions at car dealerships, read Section 5, Indirect Loans.
4. Schedule B, Investments
Schedule B shows what the credit union does with money it hasn't lent. Since the 2022 redesign, federal agency securities are split between guaranteed and non-guaranteed and between debt and non-debt instruments, with NCUA's FAQ giving examples from agency pass-throughs to credit-risk transfer securities. Section 4, Investments Memoranda, holds the detail, including brokered CDs.
5. Schedule C, Liquidity
Schedule C answers whether the credit union can meet withdrawals and loan demand without selling assets at a bad moment. Section 1 reports unfunded commitments, and later sections cover sources of cash; NCUA's FAQ puts borrowing capacity at the Federal Reserve in Section 4. Since March 2025 the schedule also reports pledged assets, so you can weigh unfunded commitments against collateral that isn't already pledged.
6. Schedule D, members and shares
Schedule D shows who funds the credit union and how much of that funding is insured. Section 1, Number of Members, counts each member once however many accounts they hold (NCUA FAQ); NCUA data reported by CU Today put the system at 146.1 million members in the second quarter of 2026. Section 2, Shares/Deposits, is what a bank would call deposits. Section 3, NCUA Insured Savings Computation, reports only uninsured shares and deposits, the amounts beyond share insurance of $250,000 per member, per credit union, per ownership category. Since March 2025 the schedule also shows brokered and reciprocal deposits and uninsured share maturities, the lines to watch for funding that could leave quickly.
7. Schedules G, H and I, capital
Schedule G, the PCA Net Worth Calculation Worksheet, produces the net worth ratio: net worth, essentially retained earnings under GAAP, over total assets. At 7.0% or more a credit union is well capitalized, and at 6.0% or more adequately capitalized. Section 3 of Schedule G offers optional total assets elections for the denominator, which NCUA's FAQ says may produce a higher ratio, so check the election before comparing two credit unions. The system ratio was 11.42% in the second quarter of 2026 (NCUA data reported by CU Today), an aggregate, not a median.
Schedules H and I apply only to complex credit unions. On Schedule I, Risk Based Capital Ratio Calculation, 10% or more is well capitalized and 8% or more adequately capitalized. Schedule H, CCULR Calculation, is the alternative: a credit union that qualifies for the flat 9% complex credit union leverage ratio and opts in meets its risk-based requirement without calculating a risk-based capital ratio, and it can switch paths in any call report period. NCUA's FAQ also warns that Schedule I classifies some items differently from the rest of the report, so don't expect its loan categories to match Schedule A.
How it differs from a bank call report
Most of the 5300 translates for anyone who reads bank call reports. Our bank call report guide covers the other side, and the Call report tab on the sample scorecard for Frost Bank shows a bank's balance sheet and income statement line by line.
| Question | Credit union, Form 5300 | Bank, FFIEC 041 |
|---|---|---|
| What it owns and owes | Statement of Financial Condition | Schedule RC, Balance Sheet |
| What it earns | Statement of Income and Expense | Schedule RI, Income Statement |
| Who it lends to | Schedule A, Section 1, Loans | Schedule RC-C Part I, Loans and Leases |
| What's going bad | Schedule A, Section 2, Delinquent Loans | Schedule RC-N, Past Due and Nonaccrual Loans, Leases, and Other Assets |
| What it has lost | Schedule A, Section 3, Charge-Offs/Recoveries | Schedule RI-B, Charge-offs and Recoveries on Loans and Leases and Changes in Allowances for Credit Losses |
| What the bond book holds | Schedule B, Investments | Schedule RC-B, Securities |
| Who funds it | Schedule D, Section 2, Shares/Deposits | Schedule RC-E, Deposit Liabilities |
| How much capital it has | Schedule G, PCA Net Worth Calculation Worksheet, plus Schedules H and I if complex | Schedule RC-R Part I, Regulatory Capital Components and Ratios, and Part II, Risk-Weighted Assets |
Source: 5300 names from NCUA's 5300 Call Report FAQs; bank titles from the FDIC's FFIEC 031 and 041 instructions. The pairings are our reading, not an official crosswalk.
- Regulator and form. Credit unions file with the NCUA; banks file the FFIEC 031, 041 or 051, free on the FFIEC's Central Data Repository. Codes and schedule letters don't carry over, so match lines by what they measure.
- Shares, not deposits. Member accounts are shares insured by the NCUSIF, and the loan-to-share ratio does the job of loan-to-deposit; NCUA put the system's at 82.9% in the second quarter of 2026.
- Net worth, not tier 1 capital. The net worth ratio needs 7.0% for well capitalized; a bank's leverage ratio rests on tier 1 capital, with 5.0% the well capitalized line, and a bank electing the CBLR has needed more than 8% since July 1, 2026. The two ratios count capital differently, as our net worth ratio guide explains.
- A leverage option above $500 million. The CCULR does for a complex credit union roughly what the CBLR does for a community bank, and two of its entry tests match the CBLR's: off-balance-sheet exposures of 25% or less of assets, and trading assets plus trading liabilities of 5% or less (CCULR rule, CBLR rule). The CCULR adds goodwill plus other intangibles of 2% or less.
- No branch deposits. Banks report deposits by office each June in the FDIC's Summary of Deposits, but NCUA reports shares by credit union, so any county figure for a credit union is an estimate, as our deposit market share guide explains.
What has changed since 2022
The 5300 was redesigned for the March 31, 2022 report, restructured to streamline the schedules and add the risk-based capital calculation. Account codes changed with it: AcctDesc.txt marks each account Active or Inactive without naming its replacement, and NCUA's FAQ points to the Account Code Catalog on its Call Report Modernization page. Map old codes to new before building a trend across March 2022, or a retired account will look like a line that fell to zero.
The March 2025 changes added brokered and reciprocal deposits and uninsured share maturities to Schedule D, pledged assets to Schedule C and loans to officials to Schedule A, so those series have no earlier history. In April 2026 NCUA asked for public input on streamlining the 5300, the 5310 and the Profile, so check that a line keeps the same definition in every quarter of a trend.
Frequently asked questions
What is the NCUA 5300 call report?
It's the quarterly financial report every federally insured natural-person credit union files with the NCUA on Form 5300: a Statement of Financial Condition, a Statement of Income and Expense, and schedules on loans, investments, liquidity, members and shares, and capital. Corporate credit unions file Form 5310 monthly instead.
When is the 5300 call report due?
NCUA's 5300 Call Report FAQs give the deadline as 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern time on the 30th of January, April, July and October. Credit unions can submit corrections to earlier quarters, so reported figures can change later.
Where can I download credit union call report data?
Free from the NCUA. Its quarterly call report data files are zipped, comma-delimited text, with an account description table, AcctDesc.txt, to decode the account codes. For one credit union, Research a Credit Union offers call report downloads and Financial Performance Report requests, and the Custom Query tool pulls selected fields across many credit unions.
What is the Financial Performance Report?
The FPR is a report NCUA produces from call report data for a single credit union, with pages such as Key Ratios, Supplemental Ratios, Historical Ratios, Assets, Income Statement, Loans, Investments, Liquidity and Graphs, and peer ratios for credit unions of similar asset size. NCUA's FPR guides define the ratios.
How is a credit union call report different from a bank call report?
Credit unions file NCUA Form 5300 and banks file FFIEC call reports, so schedules and account codes differ. Members hold shares, not deposits. Capital is the net worth ratio, essentially retained earnings over total assets, with 7.0% as the well capitalized level, rather than a leverage ratio built on tier 1 capital. Above $500 million in assets, a credit union also needs a risk-based capital ratio of 10% or more, or a 9% complex credit union leverage ratio, to be well capitalized.
Where credit unions show up in BankingLens
Rules and system figures on this page are linked to their sources where they're used, and the June 2025 credit union counts come from the NCUA data we load for Deposit Share. BankingLens is built for banks. Credit unions appear in Deposit Share as a Beta preview, with county deposits estimated from NCUA June call reports, and by name in the Mortgage tab's county lender lists, but never in a peer group or percentile, because a tax-exempt institution's return on assets isn't comparable to a taxpaying bank's (methodology). You can see a bank's call report, with every ratio ranked against its FFIEC peer group, on the sample scorecard for Frost Bank. Plans that cover your state or every bank start at $29 a month (pricing).