Business lending has been growing for a while at credit unions,but at the Tukwila, Wash.-based Boeing Employees Credit Union, it'sbooming. And it has made it happen largely by tackling a limitationcommon among credit unions when it comes to business lending:Fear.

Business lending at credit unions has been growing by doubledigits annually since 2013, according to the latest data from theNCUA. A little more than 36% of all credit unions now offerbusiness loans, up from about 29% in 2009, and 7.4% of all creditunion loans are now business loans.

But for many credit unions, business loans are still arelatively untapped resource. Of the credit unions that offerbusiness loans, just 0.3% of members get them – a rate that hasn'tchanged for at least the last six years.

In just about four years, however, the $14.5 billion BECU, whichhas more than 950,000 members, has managed to grow its businessloans from about $66 million in 2012 to about $415 million. It nowhas 37,000 business members and business deposits are growing at22% a year.

That's according to Vice President of Business and WealthServices Dana Gray, who is the chief driver of BECU's sprint intobusiness lending. Gray joined BECU in 2012, when the credit unionhad about 24,000 business members, as well as a basic businesslending program that had been in place since around 2004. Theunit had been operating without a growth focus for a number ofyears, but management knew there was a strong potential to re-tooland reinvest in their business members.

“We knew we had a strong business member population, and didn'tfeel that we were giving them the attention they deserved,” Gray recalled.

Gray sent surveys to BECU employees, as well as to about 14,000business members. One of the biggest findings: Employees wereintimidated by business members and nervous about talking aboutbusiness products. When business members did say something,employees weren't sure what to do, because they were unfamiliarwith BECU's business products, she added.

The opportunity was clear, so Gray spearheaded the creation of aseries of four online classes for employees. The required classescovered topics such as business deposit products, business creditcards, business loan products and how to make an effectivereferral. They were 20 to 30 minutes each and followed by anall-day classroom session aimed at helping employees understand thelife cycle of business members, as well as their payment needs,Gray said.

“They really learned how to speak to the business member,” shenoted.

Next came the business specialists. Gray hired four (there arefive today), and each supported seven to 10 BECU neighborhood financial centers. She calls it the best part ofthe strategy to boost business lending.

The changes may sound simple, but they haven't all comeeasily.

“One of the early mistakes that I almost made was my enthusiasmfor growing this line of business may have been slightly ahead ofour own internal capabilities to support it,” she said.

Read more about BECU's business lending strategy in theMarch 16, 2016 print issue of Credit Union Times.