Ministry Partners Investment Company Review: $95.7M Certificates

The one-sentence version

Ministry Partners Investment Company is a documented, regularly reporting, audited issuer that pays about 4.8% on unsecured certificates and lends the money to churches at about 7.05%, but it does so on a thin equity cushion, with roughly one loan dollar in nine on nonaccrual, a first half that lost money, and half of its certificates coming due within a year.

There is almost no independent writing about it. A search on November 2, 2026 for its name plus “review” returned the company’s own pages and its SEC filings, nothing else. This page is the single-issuer read: what a certificate is, what stands behind it, and which lines of the next report to watch. It sits next to our other single-issuer reads of retail note programs, Compound Real Estate Bonds and Connect Invest, and our guide to real estate notes and the issuers behind them. Unlike those two, Ministry Partners is a full SEC registrant filing 10-Ks and 10-Qs, not a Regulation A issuer filing 1-Ks and 1-SAs.

What a certificate is, and what is behind it

Ministry Partners is a credit union service organization (CUSO). The 2025 annual report says it is “owned by 11 credit unions”, was organized as a California limited liability company, and commenced operations in 1991. Its subsidiaries include a broker-dealer, Ministry Partners Securities LLC (MP Securities), which is also the selling agent for the certificates, and a not-for-profit, Ministry Partners for Christ, Inc.

Three kinds of paper sit in the $95,738 thousand of certificates payable at June 30, 2026.

What the documents say about the public certificates, which are the ones a retail reader can buy:

The last EDGAR prospectus supplement we found is Supplement No. 4 of May 1, 2025, so the spreads above are the last ones filed. The company’s website carries current rates, and we did not capture them.

The record, five reporting dates

Read it as a stable machine drifting the wrong way on its cushion: certificates flat at about $95 million to $97 million for 18 months, assets flat, nonaccrual loans flat near $10.5 million, and equity down $1,278 thousand from December 31, 2024 (our arithmetic) while the fixed certificates due within a year rose from $38.7 million to $48.8 million between September 30, 2025 and June 30, 2026. The second quarter of 2026 also reversed the first: certificates fell $1,741 thousand between March 31 and June 30 (our arithmetic) after rising $2,988 thousand in the first quarter.

What the loans are

The company lends to evangelical churches, schools and ministries, and buys loans and participations from credit unions and others. At June 30, 2026, total loans were $93,182 thousand: $85,341 thousand of non-profit commercial loans (of which $83,713 thousand real estate secured) and $7,841 thousand of for-profit commercial loans, all real estate secured. The 2025 annual report says it conducts its operations in California and owns loan interests in 29 states including the District of Columbia. The weighted average rate was 7.05%.

Three readings, in order of how much weight they can bear.

The Pass share is shrinking. Loans graded Pass fell by $2,278 thousand in six months while Watch rose by $3,250 thousand (our arithmetic). Watch is not a default grade, but it is the pool from which the lower grades are filled. Substandard and Special Mention together are $14,899 thousand, which is also the amount of loans the company evaluates individually for impairment.

Nonaccrual is partly an accounting label. The 2025 annual report states that “$6.1 million is included in total non-accrual loans as of December 31, 2025 related to a loan that has been put on non-accrual due to prior delinquency but is making regular principal and interest payments.” That is 57.8% of the nonaccrual total at that date (our arithmetic). The 11.3% figure is the share of loans on which the company has stopped accruing interest, not the share on which it is receiving nothing. The 10-Q does not repeat the split at June 30, 2026.

The reserve is small against the problem loans, and the collateral figure is the company’s own. The allowance of $1,144 thousand is 1.2% of loans and 10.9% of nonaccrual loans (our arithmetic). The company’s individually evaluated loans carry a specific allowance of $558 thousand. Collateral-dependent impaired loans are carried at $8,474 thousand using discounted appraised values with a 10% selling-cost discount, the same figure as at December 31, 2025. Charge-offs were zero in the first half of 2026 and zero in 2025; in 2024 they were $219 thousand. Two loans totalling $3,125 thousand were modified in the first half of 2026, one with a maturity extension and one with a lower payment applied to principal.

Loans due within a year were $28,730 thousand at December 31, 2025, and the 2025 annual report notes that church mortgages “typically have large balloon payments due at maturity”, so repayment depends on borrowers refinancing. Our guide to non-accruals in private credit explains why the label differs by lender.

The maturity wall

This is the section that matters most to a certificate holder, because certificates are repaid from three sources: new certificates sold, loan repayments, and cash.

An illustration, not a forecast. If the next twelve months of fixed maturities, $48,753 thousand, renewed at the 71% rate of the first half of 2026, about $14.1 million would need other funding (our arithmetic). That is close to the $14.8 million of cash plus undrawn line. New certificate sales ($20.2 million in the first half) are what normally fill that gap, which is the company’s own description: “Historically, we have been successful in generating reinvestments by our debt certificate holders when the notes they hold mature.” The annual report lists the events that would hurt: it names an inability to keep offering certificates, “sudden withdrawals by multiple investors”, and “a substantial portion of our debt certificates that mature during the next twelve months is not renewed”.

The details to watch are dated. The 2024 Class A offering “will expire on December 31, 2026 and will need to be renewed for 2027”, and no replacement registration statement appears in the EDGAR list as of November 2, 2026. The bank line matures on November 28, 2026; the annual report says it renews for a year unless either party gives notice at least thirty days before, while the 10-Q says ninety days.

Earnings: the business loses money before one-time items

For the six months ended June 30, 2026 the company had interest income of $3,364 thousand, interest expense on certificates of $2,336 thousand and a net interest margin of 1.98%, against 3.60% a year earlier. Non-interest income (mostly broker-dealer fees, $414 thousand) was $614 thousand and non-interest expenses were $2,212 thousand, leaving a net loss of $603 thousand, of which $391 thousand fell in the first quarter and $212 thousand in the second.

The company’s explanation is in the 10-Q: the drop in interest income “is predominately due to the receipt of a $670 thousand interest payment received from a borrower on an impaired loan in March 2025”, and lending fees from the same kind of loan fell by $141 thousand. Taking both out of the 2025 half, a rough comparable is $261 thousand less $670 thousand less $141 thousand, or about a $0.55 million loss (our arithmetic, ignoring tax effects), against a $0.60 million loss in 2026. In other words, with the 2025 windfalls removed, the two halves look alike. Net interest income plus fee income of $1,642 thousand covered 74.2% of the $2,212 thousand of expenses in 2026 (our arithmetic). For all of 2025 the company earned $30 thousand, after a loss of $607 thousand in 2024.

Management says the cost base is coming down (a $137 thousand reduction in office operations after a systems conversion) and that the loan yield on performing loans is rising as older loans reprice. Salaries and benefits rose to $1,237 thousand from $1,014 thousand for the six months, which the company links to a new chief financial officer hired in January 2026 and staff raises.

Who stands below the certificate holders

Members’ equity of $10,653 thousand is the cushion under the certificates, and its composition matters.

Two points. First, after the accumulated deficit the common units’ $1,510 thousand is more than offset, so the cushion beneath certificate holders is the $11,715 thousand that credit unions invested as preferred units. Second, if the charity subsidiary’s net assets are set aside because donors restrict most of them, the remaining equity is $8,433 thousand and the ratio of certificates to that equity is 11.3 to 1 (our arithmetic). The company paid $223 thousand of preferred dividends in the first half of 2026 (cash flow statement) while recording a net loss. Distributions to members are limited by the indenture’s covenants, and the company says it is in compliance.

The equity owners are credit unions. On May 14, 2026 the board consented to a sale of 11,905 Class A common units and 11,905 Series A preferred units held by Navy Federal Credit Union to HIS Kingdom Holdings LLC under a letter of intent, with closing expected on or before June 30, 2026; a member of the board of managers is a manager of the buyer, and the filing describes the sale as a privately negotiated transaction. The 10-Q does not say whether it closed.

Regulators, selling agent and related parties

• A FINRA examination of how the notes are sold. The 2025 annual report states: “we are responding to and furnishing information to FINRA in connection with a regular FINRA exam that is focusing on our compliance with Regulation BI, due diligence and supervisory obligations when conducting sales activities for our investor notes.” It also says the company has “implemented improvements in our practices and procedures for our investor notes program”. The 10-Q for June 30, 2026 reports no material litigation and no mention of an outcome. This is a routine-exam description, not an allegation.
• The seller is the issuer’s subsidiary. MP Securities sells the certificates, receives a 1.50% commission under the prospectus, and also manages $234.3 million of client assets (December 31, 2025). A broker that recommends the issuer’s own paper has a conflict that Regulation BI requires it to manage; ask your adviser whether the recommendation came from the issuer’s own broker-dealer.
• Officers and managers hold certificates. Public certificates payable to officers and managers were $2,302 thousand at June 30, 2026.
• Regulation. The company is a registered SEC filer, a California finance lender licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, and a CUSO; the filings say the National Credit Union Administration has no direct supervisory authority over it.
• No litigation and no defaults on senior securities. Part II of the 10-Q reports none of either.

Things in the filings that do not line up

• A comparison with the wrong date. The 10-Q’s discussion says total assets were “$108.6 million at June 30, 2026, as compared to $107.6 million at June 30, 2025”. The $107.6 million is the December 31, 2025 balance sheet figure ($107,612 thousand).
• Two notice periods. The bank line renews unless notice is given thirty days before the end of the term in the 10-K, and ninety days before in the 10-Q.
• Three dividend figures. The cash flow statement shows $223 thousand of preferred dividends paid, the discussion of members’ equity cites “dividends paid to our members of $238 thousand”, and the change in the accumulated deficit less the net loss implies $304 thousand (our arithmetic). We could not reconcile them from the 10-Q.
• Twelve-month maturities. The note shows $51,234 thousand maturing in the twelve months to June 30, 2027; the discussion shows $48,753 thousand of fixed certificates plus $3,351 thousand of variable, $52,104 thousand (our arithmetic). The difference may be how redeemable variable certificates are scheduled; the filing does not say.
• Presentation of the charity’s net assets. The 10-K shows an accumulated earnings deficit of $(1,731) thousand at December 31, 2025; the 10-Q shows $(3,885) thousand with the charity’s $2,154 thousand shown as a separate line. Total equity is the same, $11,494 thousand.
• The wrong exhibit year. The 10-Q’s exhibit list describes the XBRL data as being from the report “for the six months ended June 30, 2025”.

What we could not verify

• Current certificate rates and the rate sheet. They are on the company’s website and not in an EDGAR supplement after May 1, 2025.
• Whether the Navy Federal unit sale closed, and whether the FINRA review has finished.
• How the liquidity ratio is defined. The filings give 14% without a definition.
• The split of nonaccrual loans between loans paying as agreed and loans in real default at June 30, 2026.
• Anything after June 30, 2026. The Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026 had not been filed on November 2, 2026.

What a reader can do with this

1. Find your certificate. Check the series (2021 Class A, 2024 Class A fixed or variable, or private Subordinated Notes), the rate, and the maturity date. Only the first three are public; the Subordinated Notes are named as such in the filings, and we did not read their offering memorandum.
2. Size it as an unsecured claim. The company’s own page says the investor “assumes the risk of partial or full loss of their investment capital”. Do not size it like a certificate of deposit. The page we read makes no FDIC or NCUA insurance claim for these certificates.
3. Know the exit. For fixed certificates, early redemption is at the company’s discretion and can cost three months of interest; there is no market. The cleanest exit is the maturity date, and the company says maturing holders usually reinvest, so being willing to be repaid is the unusual choice. Tell the company in writing before maturity if you want cash.
4. Ask who sold it to you and what they were paid. The prospectus says MP Securities earns a 1.50% commission on sales, and the annual report discloses a FINRA exam of the sales practices. Ask for the Regulation BI disclosure and Form CRS.
5. Watch four lines in the next report: nonaccrual loans (now $10,486 thousand), cash against fixed maturities due in twelve months (now $9,767 thousand against $48,753 thousand), the renewal rate (71% in the first half), and members’ equity (now $10,653 thousand against a $4.0 million covenant on tangible adjusted net worth, a measure the filings do not compute).
6. Do not ladder only into one issuer. Holding several certificates with different maturity dates does not diversify the issuer. Our real estate notes guide compares 26 issuers on the same lines.

Pros and cons

FAQ

Verdict

Ministry Partners earns 3.0 out of 5 from us for what a reader can verify: a registered, audited issuer with a trustee, covenants, a long record and unusually clear quarterly disclosure of its maturities and loan grades. It loses points because the numbers that protect a certificate holder are thin or moving the wrong way: $9.0 of certificates per $1 of equity, an 11.3% nonaccrual share, a loss in each of the last two quarters, and half of the paper due within a year against $9.8 million of cash. The score is a judgment about structure and disclosure, not a prediction that any payment will be missed; the filings report none. The next test is the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, due in mid-November, and the renewal of the offering for 2027.

Sources: Ministry Partners Investment Company, LLC (CIK 944130) Form 10-Q for June 30, 2026, accession 0000944130-26-000019; Form 10-Q for March 31, 2026, accession 0000944130-26-000013; Form 10-Q for September 30, 2025, accession 0000944130-25-000024; Form 10-K for 2025, accession 0000944130-26-000009; Form 8-K of May 28, 2026, accession 0000944130-26-000016; Form 424B3 prospectus for the 2024 Class A Debt Certificates dated February 6, 2024, accession 0000944130-24-000017; Supplement No. 4, accession 0000944130-25-000010; the company’s investment options page, read November 2, 2026. Arithmetic is ours and labelled. Amounts are in thousands of dollars where marked. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.