In remarks at the ILCU Internal Audit Services Conference, the Central Bank of Ireland set out its 2026 supervisory priorities for credit unions, focusing on financial resilience including reserves and liquidity, a coordinated approach to sustainable growth, operational risk, and stronger governance and culture. The speech placed those priorities in the context of heightened macroeconomic, geopolitical, cyber and technology risks, and stressed that the revised lending framework is intended to enable prudent expansion rather than unchecked growth in mortgages or business lending. The Bank described the sector as financially resilient, with close to 3.6 million reported members and approximately EUR 22.5 billion in assets at end-September 2025. Member savings stood at EUR 18.7 billion, gross loans outstanding at EUR 7.7 billion, new lending during the year at EUR 3.3 billion, the house loan book approached EUR 900 million, and average realised reserves were 16.8%. At the same time, a sectoral loan-to-asset ratio of 34% was highlighted as evidence of a continuing imbalance between savings and lending, reinforcing the need for stronger strategic planning, asset and liability management, and robust credit assessment, affordability analysis, risk pricing and concentration controls. Looking ahead, the Bank said it will progress an appropriate regulatory framework for shared service organisations during 2026, continue policy work on corporate credit unions, and update the Credit Union Handbook and related guidance. Following its 2025 IT thematic review, credit unions are expected to remediate identified gaps by early 2027, with the quality and pace of that work forming a supervisory focus in 2026 and beyond ahead of the application of the Digital Operational Resilience Act to credit unions from January 2028.
Central Bank of Ireland 2026-04-28
Central Bank of Ireland sets 2026 credit union supervisory priorities with early 2027 IT remediation target
The Central Bank of Ireland set 2026 supervisory priorities for credit unions: financial resilience, sustainable growth, operational risk, and governance and culture, stressing that the revised lending framework supports prudent, not unchecked, expansion. It cited a 34% loan-to-asset ratio as evidence of a savings–lending imbalance, highlighting the need for stronger strategic planning, asset–liability management, and credit risk controls. The Bank will also develop a regulatory framework for shared service organisations, continue policy work on corporate credit unions, update the Credit Union Handbook, and supervise remediation of IT gaps ahead of the Digital Operational Resilience Act’s application from January 2028.