No. 1: Consumers Need Support Now More Than Ever

INDEX OF CONSUMER SENTIMENT
FOR 900-1,000 MONTHLY WEB INTERVIEWS | DATA AS OF MARCH 2026
SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SURVEYS OF CONSUMERS

• After a brief rebound in early 2024, the Index of Consumer Sentiment declined steadily throughout 2025 and into 2026. The reading of 55 in March 2026 was even lower than the peak days of the COVID pandemic and signals genuine household anxiety rather than routine fluctuation. When consumer outlook is this uncertain, households often pull back on borrowing, delay major purchases, and prioritize liquidity.
• Of course, social media and the 24-hour news cycle can skew the perception of economic health away from household reality. Indeed, certain segments of the economy are doing OK; unfortunately, others are hurting. With this context, it’s important to remember that macroeconomic data represents the average and credit unions serve those on the lower end of that economic spectrum.
• For credit unions, today’s reality is both a warning and an opportunity. Members under financial stress are more likely to need guidance, restructuring options, and financial counseling. Institutions that show up proactively — rather than waiting for delinquencies to surface — will deepen loyalty when it matters most.

 
Watch Trendwatch on demand today. Did you miss this quarter’s live Trendwatch webinar? No worries! Catch it on demand. Learn about first quarter performance trends from industry experts and take note of the practical insights you can act upon today to strengthen strategy, serve members better, and perpare for what comes next. Watch Trendwatch today.

No. 2: Member Growth Is Historically Low; Confounding Factors Are At Play

ANNUAL MEMBER GROWTH
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES

• Membership growth remains sluggish despite a slight uptick in the first quarter. Much of the prior-year volume came from indirect lending — a channel that’s often expensive and ill-suited to building lasting relationships. Credit unions have pulled back from indirect lending and now must find new ways to tell their story and fill their lending pipelines.
• Membership growth is diverging by asset size — smaller credit unions are posting rates as low as -0.5%, whereas larger peers hold near 1.8%. Scale plays a role, but so does an education gap: younger members increasingly don’t know what they’re missing. Smaller credit unions have the opportunity to make the case for community finance to a generation that hasn’t heard it yet.
• On the bright side, relationships with existing members are deepening. Products per member and average relationship balances are up, as are most product penetration rates. In short, fewer new members might be joining the movement, but credit unions are still heavily supporting their core member base.

No. 3: First Mortgages Are Carrying Loan Growth

YEAR-TO-DATE LOAN ORIGINATIONS
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES

• Year-to-date loan originations hit $152.6 billion as of the first quarter of 2026; that’s a 13.6% increase from this time last year.  First mortgages have been doing the heavy lifting. As rate cuts filter through the housing market — and prices stabilize in many markets as wages partially catch up — demand for homebuying and refinancing is returning.  Credit unions with a strong mortgage infrastructure are well-positioned to capitalize on this trend, especially in the relationship-driven refinance space where credit unions historically thrive.
• Other real estate and commercial real estate categories contributed to loan growth to a lesser degree. Auto lending, which dominated origination activity in prior years, is notably absent as a growth driver — a reflection of the industry’s retreat from indirect lending, tariffs, elevated vehicle prices, tighter consumer budgets, and the continued hangover from pandemic-era buying behavior.

No. 4: Asset Quality Is Improving … Seasonally, At Least

ASSET QUALITY RATIO
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES

• Credit unions reported the typical first quarter improvement in the asset quality ratio. Net charge-offs and delinquencies ticked down from elevated year-end levels. Delinquency ratios came in at 0.81%, whereas net charge-offs settled at 0.84%, for a combined ratio of 1.65%. These numbers are better than the fourth quarter of 2025 but remain higher than pre-pandemic norms.
• First quarter seasonality is relevant. Tax refunds, holiday debt payoffs, and January financial resets temporarily reduce delinquency. The real test will come in the second and third quarters when the buffer fades and credit unions will see if consumer sentiment reflects repayment reality. The good news? The industry remains well-covered for delinquency and has a strong net worth on average. The cushion is there to help struggling members at a time when banks or other financial institutions might turn them away.

No. 5: Now Is The Time To Build Capital And Invest Strategically

OPERATING EXPENSE RATIO VS. NET INTEREST MARGIN, ANNUALIZED
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES

• The gap between the net interest margin and the operating expense ratio is the widest it’s been in decades — a 0.33 percentage point spread that reflects the unusual and favorable environment credit unions have been operating in since rates began rising in 2022. For now, this margin cushion is providing real earnings flexibility.
• Even with slowing non-interest income revenue, and increasing provision expense, credit union ROA is up to 0.85% annualized. This is a relatively high return on assets, giving the industry some freedom to build allowance and net worth cushions.
• However, pressures are building from both directions. If rates ease, asset yields historically compress. Meanwhile, operating expenses rarely come down for long — technology investments, staff costs, and compliance burdens continue to climb with inflation. Credit unions that treat today’s margin environment as permanent could be caught off guard. In the meantime, the window to build capital, invest strategically, and reduce structural cost is still open. Effective investment in operational efficiency is a key way to manage expanding operating costs.

See the patterns behind this quarter’s trends. Trendwatch highlights key themes drawn from industrywide data. Peer Suite’s Premium level helps leaders evaluate their credit union’s performance across the same core metrics, using handpicked peer groups and deeper context to support understanding and discussion. Start your free 30-day trial.

See You Next Quarter! CreditUnions.com updates this page with the freshest FirstLook credit union data every quarter, so don’t forget to come back for insights into the second quarter of 2026.

The post 5 Takeaways From First Quarter Credit Union Performance Data appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

According to the LinkedIn Grad’s Guide 2026, hiring for entry-level roles is down roughly 7% year-over-year and remains below pre-pandemic levels. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports the unemployment rate rose to 5.8% at the end of 2025 for recent college graduates aged 22-27. At the same time, the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) projects employers will hire just 1.6% more new grads compared to 2025.

Nearly 70% of employers claim to take a skills-based approach to hiring, looking for a combination of internships, volunteer projects, freelance work, and personal projects that demonstrate applied skills and the ability to turn classroom learning into real-world experience. On the other hand, GPA is losing importance. Since 2019, the percentage of employers who screen graduate GPAs has fallen from 73% to 42%.

And when it comes to artificial intelligence, new grads face a quandary. Employers have expectations for how their staff uses AI but are still figuring out the specifics, according to Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at the job and internship platform Handshake. Still, a full 59% of respondents to a NACE research report claim they are not going to or are unsure if they will augment entry-level jobs with AI, whereas 25% are actively discussing their AI plans for entry-level roles. The same data finds approximately 13% of entry-level jobs require AI skills; 11% of those jobs include AI in their descriptions.

PROJECTED CHANGE IN NUMBER OF ENTRY-LEVEL COLLEGE HIRES
FOR U.S. EMPLOYERS, COLLEGE GRADUATES | DATA AS OF NOVEMBER 2025
SOURCE: National Association of Colleges & Employers Job Outlook 2026 Survey

To find a job, new graduates are using a combination of search methods. According to Metaintro, professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn remain the most widely used tools, whereas job seekers often drop campus-specific recruiting platforms after leaving school. Major job aggregators such as Indeed are useful for broad awareness and alerts for specific roles and locations. Metaintro claims industry-specific job boards and company career pages are underrated and can bear a disproportionately greater amount of fruit when compared to major aggregators. Pair all of the above with active, relationship-based networking and new grads can gain a leg up on their competition.

Strategic Insights

• The top five industries for projected hiring growth are: miscellaneous professional services; engineering services; construction; finance, insurance, and real estate; and management consulting. Healthcare, skilled trades, cybersecurity, and business operations are also active in hiring new grads.
• On the flip side, the 14% of employers who plan to decrease hiring in 2026 tend to represent: pharmaceutical manufacturing; transportation; wholesale trade; food and beverage manufacturing; and miscellaneous manufacturing. Hiring for the general tech industry also remains uneven.
• The share of fully hybrid jobs has declined in the past year, falling from 47% to 42%; the share of fully on-site jobs has risen from 43% to 48%. Fully remote jobs have held steady, comprising 10% of the market. Half of all entry-level positions require an in-person presence, whereas only 6% are fully remote.

How Can Credit Unions Support Entry-Level Job Seekers?

• Students across the country are moving into credit union internships. Such opportunities support the future of the industry while providing practical, real-world work experience for future job seekers. Read more in “From Internship To Credit Union Career.”
• Holy Rosary Credit Union has embedded itself into a local high school’s career and technical education program, offering scholarships, internships, and courses eligible for college credit. Read more in “Inside An In-School Model That Links Classrooms With Careers.”
• California Credit Union offers a summer internship program, and alumni have left their mark on the credit union’s operations. Read more in “Interns Inspire Innovation At California Credit Union.”

The post New Graduates Face A Cautious Job-Hiring Landscape appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

St. Cloud Financial Credit Union ($430.0M, Sartell, MN) has quickly evolved from early adopter to advocate when it comes to digital assts.

The Minnesota-based cooperative has built a core-integrated digital asset vault, connected to multiple blockchain networks, and even launched its own stablecoin. But CEO Jed Meyer is quick to clarify this isn’t about chasing crypto because it’s new and buzzy.

“We never set out to be a trailblazer,” he says. “We always start with our member and work outward.”

This time, it started with a market penetration problem.

In 2019, the credit union had roughly 23,000 members in a market of 200,000 people and nearly 40 competing financial institutions. Through strategic planning sessions, two priorities emerged: to better serve underserved populations through customized products, and to understand where member money might be going next.

That second priority led the credit union to digital assets.

“We were seeing some deposit outflows,” Meyer says. “Not a ton, but enough to ask, ‘what are we going to do?’”

In 2023, approximately $1 million in deposits flowed from St. Cloud Financial to exchanges. In 2024, that number jumped to $15 million.

“That’s a 15x trend of liquidity outflows,” Meyer says.

Across the industry, the CEO estimates roughly 3% of deposits might already be leaving for digital asset platforms with no guarantee of return.

“With every innovation in the past 100 years, we were still needed at some point in the lifecycle of the dollar,” Meyer says. “This is the first time that might not be true. When a dollar leaves me for the DeFi space, there’s never a need for a centralized ledger ever again.”

According to Gallup, one in seven Americans reported owning cryptocurrency in 2025. For St. Cloud Financial specifically, Meyer says 16% to 25% of its members either already have or are showing interest in digital assets.

“Relevancy always equals ROI,” he says. “I’m more interested in plugging the hole in the bottom of the income boat than I am worrying about future dollars.”

Education Before Execution

Before building anything, St. Cloud focused on understanding the space.

The CEO says it’s difficult to find education materials, so the credit union helped foster the Minnesota Crypto Council, a nonprofit focused on education for members, staff, and the broader community. For four years, the organization has hosted quarterly sessions, developed training materials, and brought in subject matter experts.

That education-first approach proved critical not just for adoption but also for addressing skepticism.

“When you launch something like this, you have to speak to the 50% of your membership that doesn’t want it,” Meyer says. “This is optional. We’re not forcing anything.”

Industry peers might be even harder to convince. A fall 2025 report from American Banker found the majority of the banks, credit unions, and payments companies it surveyed remain in the discussions and learning phase. The uncertainty around regulations has slowed adoption, and one of the most common arguments against digital assets is its association with volatility and fraud.

Meyer flips that framing.

“What risk have I actually taken?” he asks. “Other than human capacity and time spent, what risk have I taken?”

In his view, the greater risk lies in waiting.

“I actually think people who say, ‘I’ll get to this in five years,’ are taking the risky position,” he says.

What Came First — The Vault Or The Coin?

Although much of the industry conversation has centered on stablecoins, St. Cloud Financial took a different path with the launch of its CU-Digital Asset Vault in March. Initially envisioned as a digital version of a safe deposit box, it quickly evolved into foundational, core-integrated infrastructure. Rather than building a single product, the cooperative deployed a core-integrated digital asset framework developed by DaLand CUSO – Coin-2-Core – capable of operating across multiple financial rails, from traditional payment networks to blockchain-based systems.

“The vault acts as a vault, but really it’s a switch,” Meyer says. “It turns my core into the wallet. It turns my core into the node. It allows me to plug into any DLT [distributed ledger technology] money network.”

At a structural level, the credit union designed the vault around member ownership, employing a self-custody model where members retain control of their digital assets while the credit union facilitates storage and movement. This is in line with the current regulatory environment, where full custody authority remains an area of ongoing clarification. Rather than push ahead in a gray area, Meyer says St. Cloud Financial has spent years engaging regulators at both the federal and state levels, including ongoing dialogue with the NCUA and the Minnesota Department of Commerce. In the meantime, the vault serves as both a practical member tool and a strategic bridge, connecting digital assets back to the cooperative’s core system without overstepping regulatory boundaries.

With the infrastructure in place, launching a proprietary stablecoin became possible. Although that was not originally a main objective of the strategy, a use case convinced the credit union to proceed. Two national food co-ops approached St. Cloud Financial looking for a settlement solution aligned with cooperative principles.

“We offered them USDC,” Meyer says. “They said, ‘We’re a cooperative, you’re a cooperative. We want a cooperative stablecoin.’”

Thus, St. Cloud Financial introduced the Cloud Dollar ($CLDUSD) in late 2025, making it the nation’s first credit union-issued stablecoin.

Still, Meyer cautions against overemphasizing this aspect of the technology.

“In five years, we’ll look back and say that was a small sliver of what we were actually talking about,” he says.

Don’t Stop Here. Stablecoins and digital assets have moved beyond “wait and see” into active development. For a look at both the risks and the opportunities in this next phase of financial services, read “What Should Credit Unions Know About Stablecoins?” only on CreditUnions.com.

Slow Rollout, Strong Signals

St. Cloud Financial has taken a measured approach to rollout.

Following an NCUA audit in late 2025, the credit union launched a friends-and-family pilot in December and expanded to full membership in March. Today, the credit union holds approximately 15 Bitcoin in its system and between 50 and 75 vaults in progress.

So far the most notable insight isn’t volume, Mayer says, but member behavior, especially among younger demographics.

“When they open a vault, they bring everything with them,” he says, indicating it’s been a way to deepen relationships and increase products per member. “We’ve been told, ‘Finally someone is listening to our generation and what we believe our wealth will be.’”

Consumers are already in the cryptocurrency space, and Meyer urges industry peers not to outsource those members.

“You worked hard for those relationships,” he says. “You cannot continue to give your relationships away to third parties.”

An Uncertain Timeline

Crypto is only the beginning for St. Cloud Financial. The same infrastructure that supports digital assets today could eventually handle tokenized financial instruments, identities, and other forms of value.

“This is going to be bigger than a product,” Meyer says. “It’s going to be bigger than one innovation.”

The CEO expects the traditional finance and digital asset ecosystems will coexist and, ultimately, St. Cloud’s strategy is less about predicting the future and more about preparing for it.

“If this takes another seven to 10 years, I’m okay with that,” Meyer says. “If this happens tomorrow, I’m okay with that.”

For credit unions, the question isn’t whether to launch a stablecoin or offer crypto trading. According to Meyer, it’s whether they will have a role in a financial system where money can move, store, and grow entirely outside of them.

“Our only play is to establish ourselves as the access point, the aggregator point, and the trusted advisor point,” he says.

The post A Credit Union Journey Into Cryptocurrency And Stablecoins appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Those developments come as the industry’s average member age remains in the mid-40s, and credit unions of all sizes search for ways to attract young members and hold them over the long haul.

From First Account To Adulthood

In 2025, SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union ($36.7B, Tustin, CA) had more than 139,000 members who were age 17 or younger. That’s a triple-digit increase of 142% since 2010. Even better, the credit union has tracked that cohort’s engagement upon reaching adulthood and has noted a steady uptick in participation and engagement that rivals its average adult member.

SCHOOLSFIRST FCU MEMBERS WITH 4 TO 7 PRODUCTS
FOR SCHOOLSFIRST FCU | DATA AS OF 2025
SOURCE: SCHOOLSFIRST FCU

Young members of SchoolsFirst FCU have two youth account options, depending on their age. Those up to 12 years old may join the credit union’s Junior Varsity Club, whereas 13- to 17-year-olds may join the Varsity Club.

Parents generally open youth accounts when children are approximately 6 years old, although enrollment is balanced across all age groups. Regardless of age, the credit union offers age-appropriate products and services for each cohort, such as the College Saver Share Certificates and a Youth Debit Mastercard with spending and withdrawal limits. A whopping 69% of Varsity memberships carry the youth debit card, with 53% of those members actively using it.

A full 87% of youth memberships are opened in the branch, but the credit union notes a growing number of youth membership application coming in across digital channels, including online and mobile. To bolster that growth and highlight its youth offerings, the cooperative is producing web content, print materials, educational workshops, and more.

Once the credit union signs up a young member, it offers financial workshops as well as online and mobile services to serve them as they grow into adulthood. It also leans on modern communication platforms, including social media video, to connect with young members on channels they prefer.

SchoolsFirst FCU builds its youth-to-adult engagement model around four key areas:

• Early Financial Education And Workshops — This includes money management, in-school events, digital and print resources, and more.
• Youth Products — From youth debit cards to savings accounts and beyond, SchoolsFirst FCU supports all its youth products with education, resources, and guardrails like ATM usage limits to encourage responsible use.
• Parental Engagement — Those overseeing the accounts have guidance on different product tools and features, best practices to support youth financial development, and more.
• Automatic Transition To Adult Membership — This step at age 18 ensures continuity and minimizes friction to preserve member relationships. It also provides immediate access to checking and debit products, savings tools, credit-building opportunities, and more, with no new onboarding required.

No Substitute For School

Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union ($2.2B, Lowell, MA) has operated in-school branches since 1997 and currently runs three, the newest of which has been in place for a decade. The credit union tracks member engagement for those who start their accounts as students and reports 80% are still active 15 years later.

What does that engagement look like? The cohort holds more than a single savings account, and credit union leaders are digging into whether those members have taken out loans and how their participation has changed over time.

“We build their trust and get them at the start of their banking relationship,” says Robin Lorenzen, chief marketing officer. “They trust us because we were there when they were growing up.”

Jeanne D’Arc recruits high school branch managers to engage with the students, teaching the basics of banking and writing scholarship recommendation letters. It also offers student interns class credit for working the in-school branch. Those interns also help spread the word about the credit union.

Even with modern digital banking and financial education tools, Lorenzen says there’s no replacement for the in-school branch experience and classroom-based financial education.

“They’re engaged on multiple levels because we’ve come to them instead of trying to get them to come to us,” she says. “We’re meeting them where they are, and those high school branches create a unique relationship with the students.”

“This generation wants to do it themselves, but they want somebody there when they need help,” she says.

But branches alone aren’t enough, Lorenzen adds. The credit union also has a six-person financial education team that supplements the in-school branches and teaches in the classroom. Those multiple touch points reinforce themselves over time, building a relationship with the students that leads to trust and long-term engagement.

The credit union provides in-person support and builds relationships through high school branches. As those members age out, they know they can still turn to a branch when they need help, but they also know how to navigate online banking and self-service resources.

The growth of self-service channels in the past 15 years has been instrumental in forging long-term engagement, Lorenzen says, because graduating students know they don’t need to find another bank or credit union after high school.

“They know they can still bank with us,” the CMO says. “That trust is there, so they take us with them.”

Lessons Learned

To replicate the success of SchoolsFirst FCU and Jeann D’Arc, both credit unions say it’s important to understand this a long-term commitment to member development, not short-term product growth.

SchoolsFirst FCU also says its crucial to empower front-line staff to act as advocates for members. Thoughtful questions paired with the right solutions, not a focus on pushing products, builds trust early and establishes the foundation for a durable relationship.

For Jeanne D’Arc, maintaining touchpoints with students is key. This includes the in-school branch as well as the classroom, student activities, Reality Fairs, and more.

Equally important? Try to keep it light.

“In high school it’s not all about selling and teaching,” Lorenzen says. “There are ways to bring in the kids to interact, whether it’s trivia or giveaways or something like that. It’s not always about banking; it’s about connection.”

The post 2 Tactics To Increase Young Member Engagement appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

The Jack Henry Financial Sentiment Study: Consumer Report — a qualitative assessment of how people feel about their financial situations — reveals a paradox that every credit union executive should note: while 52% of consumers are satisfied with their current financial position, fewer than half (44%) feel knowledgeable about financial matters. This “confidence gap” is where the member experience is lost … or won.

Understanding The 5 Faces of Your Membership

Strategic segmentation is a secret weapon for turning data into deep loyalty. By grouping members into five distinct segments based on demographics and psychographics, you can provide the proactive support your members want.

• Legacy Lifestylers (Median Age, 72): These members are comfortably retired but show some of the lowest confidence in navigating financial decisions. They value the “human touch” and “protect” capabilities (like fraud alerts) more than anything else.
• Next-Stage Planners (Median Age, 55): Approaching retirement, this group is focused on budgeting and planning. They need proactive advisory alerts to help them move gracefully into their next chapter.
• Prime Earners (Median Age, 39): This is the most confident and satisfied segment. They’re in the thick of it — building careers and raising families. They demand high-value digital tools like account aggregation to manage their complex financial lives.
• Momentum Builders (Median Age, 26): These are optimistic young professionals facing frequent life changes like moving or starting new jobs. They prioritize convenience, rewards, and mobile-first tools.
• Opportunity Seekers (Median Age, 19): This youngest segment is the most underbanked and has the lowest confidence across all behaviors. They need simplified account opening and foundational guidance to build their future.

The Life Stage Influence: A Guide For Proactive Support

Financial confidence is not a steady climb; it follows a curve that heavily dictates the member experience. Confidence typically peaks with Prime Earners, who are the most satisfied with their financial knowledge (61%) and their financial institution’s role (82%). In contrast, confidence dips significantly for those under 25 and over 65.

This disparity reinforces why a 20-year-old student and a 70-year-old retiree can’t be adequately served with the same generic experience, because diverse life events trigger different needs:

• Opportunity Seekers experience the highest frequency of life events, averaging 2.7 per person. While this younger segment is navigating major shifts like moving (31%) or starting college (24%), they’re the least satisfied with their financial institution’s role in managing their financial wellbeing.
• Conversely, although Legacy Lifestylers report only 0.8 events on average, they show below-average confidence in planning and borrowing.

For credit unions, the member experience is defined by how well you bridge these gaps. The real opportunity for loyalty lies in guiding an Opportunity Seeker through a move or a Legacy Lifestyler through a health change — areas where satisfaction currently drops.

Elevating Member Experience Through Digital Table Stakes

There’s a disconnect between the services you’re providing and the digital expectations of your members. Features like easy bill pay and reporting lost cards (satisfied at 69% and 71% respectively) are now table stakes — members expect them to work perfectly.

To truly move the needle on the member experience, you must prioritize “impact” features:

• Data-Driven Education — Use your data — including account history and channel usage patterns — to share relevant insights and personalized content that help members feel more in control of their spending and saving.
• Event-Based Content — Deliver relevant advice exactly when members need it, like before buying a car or after a job loss.
• Account Aggregation — Allow members to see their full financial picture in one place to build trust and demonstrate your expertise.

From Insights To Action

Download the Financial Sentiment Study: Consumer Report for a deep dive into the trends shaping the future of banking.

And remember, the goal of segmentation isn’t just to organize data — it’s to meet members where they are with empathy and purpose. Read the Jack Henry Consumer Segmentation Guide to learn how to tailor your messaging, products, and services to the five personas to deepen bonds, remove barriers to financial health, and drive stronger adoption across your entire organization.

The post Closing The “Confidence Gap:” Using Segmentation To Deepen Member Loyalty appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

That realization landed with force for Tracy Verner, community development manager at Alltru Federal Credit Union ($392.5M, Wentzville, MO). After years of watching members absorb financial education but remain boxed out of the system, she began pushing the cooperative to rethink what real progress looks like — what financial empowerment looks like.

“Financial empowerment is information combined with access,” she says. “Many financial institutions offer well-meaning financial literacy — workshops, gamified apps — but it’s still just information. We’re doing an injustice if we provide information without the tools to apply it.”

The philosophy has changed the way the St. Louis cooperative operates, from product design to employee training. The result? Stronger culture, deeper partnerships, and helping more people who otherwise might have remained unbanked.

Gaps And Barriers

To truly empower members, it’s necessary to understand the barriers they face and examine who the credit union is not yet serving.

“If you’re truly committed to empowerment, it’s your responsibility to provide access,” Verner says. “Credit unions were built on inclusion, so ask: ‘Who’s being left out, and why?’”

An early experience in Verner’s credit union career underscored to her the importance of doing things differently. Speaking with a workshop attendee after an event, Verner learned the woman couldn’t open a checking account.

“I was floored,” Verner says. “She had steady income working for the city of St. Louis but couldn’t access a checking account. This was before fintech tools like Venmo or Cash App. She was receiving paper checks, and when the city stopped issuing them, she was forced onto a prepaid card with fees.”

Verner met with her boss and learned the woman had an incident in her ChexSystems report that barred access to checking. In these kinds of screening systems, even a single overdraft charge can easily turn a short-term issue into a multi-year obstacle. At the end of 2025, approximately 6% to 7% of U.S. households were unbanked, according to Bankrate, largely because of prior banking problems.

So, Alltru turned ChexSystems off.

“This was before the Bank On movement even reached St. Louis,” Verner says. “Altru was already questioning those barriers. Leadership was already asking why.”

Expanding Access Without Increasing Risk

Opening access at scale shifts responsibility inside the institution and can raise questions about risk management, making effective collaboration with finance and compliance teams essential.

“Our compliance manager tracks outcomes closely,” Verner says. “We’ve found people flagged in ChexSystems do not show higher fraud or delinquency rates. The data simply doesn’t support the perceived risk.”

Alltru regularly evaluates programs and purposefully keeps guardrails flexible. For example, the credit union noticed an issue involving fraud through ATM deposits among its youth workforce program. So, it pivoted.

“Instead of shutting it down, we increased our fraud education efforts, reduced ATM withdrawal limits, and added monitoring,” Verner says. “We didn’t stop the program. We refined it.”

Alltru takes the same creative approach to lending. Traditional secured loans tend to rely on upfront cash or collateral. That’s a barrier for members without savings. Alltru’s credit builder loan removes that requirement, although it doesn’t release funds immediately to reduce risk while still helping members build credit. In practice, however, early usage indicated Alltru needed to recalibrate the loan.

“Initially, it was $1,000 over 12 months,” Verner says. “We realized some members couldn’t handle that.”

Today, the Missouri cooperative offers loan options as low as $300 because even $30 every month can help members without creating excess financial strain. Alltru has also gradually leaned into relationship lending, and half of its first-time auto loan borrowers don’t have a credit score.

“You start with good intentions,” Verner says. “Then you refine based on real needs.”

Empowerment As An Organizational Mindset

Financial empowerment starts with understanding the consequences of credit union decisions. Verner spends time in the community working alongside nonprofits and listening to members outside the branch to identify where well‑intended policies still limit access.

“Being in the community, working with nonprofits, seeing real challenges brings up more questions,” she says. “It forces you to ask why.”

Of course, asking why only matters if it changes how people make decisions, which is why financial empowerment at Alltru also rests on a shared understanding of what it means to struggle, how strain shows up in everyday life, and who needs support.

“The rising costs of housing, groceries, and auto loans have impacted everyone,” she says. “This isn’t someone else’s problem. This is about our neighbors, families, and even our coworkers.”

That awareness changes decisions, from product design to flexibility at the margins. As a credit union focused on empowerment, Alltru is willing to look for ways to preserve access instead of restrict it.

Forward-thinking credit unions are leading with financial wellbeing. Alltru FCU’s evolution from education to true financial empowerment reflects a broader shift across the industry. The Member Engagement and Financial Wellbeing Consortium, led by Callahan & Associates in collaboration with Gallup, helps credit unions embed financial wellbeing into strategy, product decisions, and culture. Through shared insights and peer collaboration, participating credit unions are aligning around what drives real member confidence, engagement, and long-term growth. Learn how the Consortium is helping credit unions turn empowerment into measurable impact.

The post Why Financial Empowerment Matters More Than Financial Literacy appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Federal poverty level (FPL) guidelines vary by household size but rely on a single national baseline for the continental United States, regardless of wide differences in local cost of living. Only Alaska and Hawaii have separate guidelines. Additionally, although the FPL is adjusted each year for inflation, the underlying methodology and assumptions used to calculate the poverty guidelines date back to the 1960s and have not been fundamentally reworked to reflect modern spending patterns and economic realities. Today, essentials such as housing, healthcare, childcare, and transportation comprise a far larger share of household budgets than they did back then.

To address this gap, the United Way of Northern New Jersey developed a way to capture the households that earn more than the federal poverty level but still struggle to afford basic necessities. The ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) framework calculates a Household Survival Budget based on the localized cost of basic necessities such as housing, childcare, food, transportation, healthcare, technology, taxes, and more for every county in the United States. It then compares that budget with household income sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to establish the ALICE Threshold and provide a more accurate picture of financial hardship.

According to the 2025 State of ALICE Report, the cost of household necessities plus taxes greatly outstrip FPL guidelines. Thus, households below the ALICE Threshold must make difficult decisions every day. They often earn too much to qualify for public assistance but not enough to comfortably afford necessities like groceries, car repairs, and medications, placing them between a rock and a hard place.

SHARE OF U.S HOUSEHOLDS ABOVE AND BELOW ALICE THRESHOLD
FOR U.S. HOUSEHOLDS | DATA AS OF 2023
SOURCE: United Way, U.S. Census Bureau

Strategic Insights

• The K-shaped economy continues to define the post-COVID landscape. According to Axios, 59% of all consumer spending in the United States comes from just the top 20% of income earners.
• Money markets reflect this inequality as well. Bloomberg claims the top 1% of U.S. households now hold close to one-third of the nation’s wealth, the highest level since World War II.
• Widening inequality helps to explain deteriorating consumer sentiment; many people simply have not seen improvements in their standard of living. The University of Michigan Survey of Consumers expects consumer sentiment to fall to all-time lows of 47.6 in April 2026, driven by stubbornly high inflation expectations and the Iran conflict.
• When money stops making sense, people suffer a crisis of financial confidence. That’s when financial nihilism can take hold.
• According to JD Power’s March Banking and Payments Intelligence Report, 68% of U.S. consumers are considered financially unhealthy with one-third expecting their financial situation to worsen over the next three months. The vast majority have changed spending habits, purchasing less expensive grocery items or even less food overall.

What Can Credit Unions Do?

• In Tucson, a handful of credit unions have paired up with their state credit union association’s foundation to make housing more affordable. Read more today.
• DuGoood Federal Credit Union is strengthening local households through a workforce partnership that combines products, education, and philanthropy to support job training and technical education. Read more today.
• Holy Rosary Credit Union is giving young people a leg up before they enter the workforce and establish their own households. Its career and technical education program offers scholarships, internships, and courses eligible for college credit. Read more today.
• Nuvision Federal Credit Union’s Added Advantage program tracks member engagement across the credit union, then rewards relationships through better pricing and other perks, easing the stress some households face. Read more today.

The post 42% Of U.S. Households Experience Financial Hardship appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Most young people don’t choose their first financial institution. They inherit it from their parents, walk into the branch down the street, or choose whatever account is easiest to open at the time.

Six years ago, Excite Credit Union ($618.1M, San Jose, CA) decided not to leave that relationship to chance. Instead, it set a goal that every child would have a savings account, reshaping how it approaches youth banking and even establishing Excite Foundation to realize that vision.

“A foundation makes a lot of sense,” says John Hogan, executive director of Excite Foundation. “It allowed us to expand our reach, create a vehicle for external funding, and work with automatic enrollment opportunities.”

In 2020, the foundation launched its signature program: College in My Future. Every year, it automatically enrolls approximately 600 incoming first graders in San Jose’s Franklin-McKinley School District in a savings account they can access after turning 18. The program aims to start building college savings early, particularly among underserved families who might otherwise delay or lack access to those tools.

Inspiration For Early Wealth Building

The foundation modeled College in My Future in part off a playbook published by Prosperity Now, a nonprofit focused on economic equity and wellbeing, and the City of San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College program.

“This ties into the broader children’s savings movement, which has been around for more than 15 years,” Hogan says. “Learning from others is key. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”

Upon enrollment, the program includes a $50 seed deposit from the foundation. There is also an annual deposit match, which is typically $25 or $50, depending on funding. Importantly, these are not bank accounts; they are ledger accounts, internal records the foundation holds to track balances on the student’s behalf until they access funds later.

“We don’t collect Social Security numbers or tax IDs,” Hogan explains. “That’s one reason you can’t scale this model with traditional bank accounts. You need more information to open those.”

This method removes certain barriers to access that identity requirements can present. It also reduces regulatory friction and protects the credit union from housing hundreds of dormant, inactive accounts.

Excite Credit Union also supports early savings through its Step Up Savings program, which matches deposits at key milestones. Whereas College in My Future focuses on broad access and automatic enrollment, Step Up Savings offers a more traditional, opt-in pathway for families. Read more today.

Inclusion Is Easy. Engagement Takes Work.

A primary measure of success for the program is parent engagement, determined by how many parents have claimed their child’s account or whether they’ve started contributing on their own. According to Hogan, engagement is 20%-30%.

“With automatic enrollment, the benefit is inclusion, but the downside is that parents don’t always know about the account,” the executive director says.

The foundation has introduced incentives to encourage stronger engagement  this. For example, parents receive a bonus when they find their account online and create login credentials.

The foundation also goes directly to parents for feedback.

“We recently implemented a parent advisory group,” Hogan says. “It includes seven moms — five native Spanish speakers and two native Vietnamese speakers. In this school district, about 60% of families are Hispanic and about 24% are Vietnamese, so representation is important.”

This council of local moms advised parents are more likely to engage if communication comes from the school. So, the foundation now often sends communications through the school’s parent portal.

“The school will send a message saying, ‘You’re going to receive communication from Excite Foundation. Be sure to check it.’ That’s helped move engagement closer to 30%,” Hogan says.

The Excite Foundation also mails home paper statements, using school district envelopes that include the logos of both entities. These communications provide a translation in Spanish or Vietnamese in addition to English, which Hogan says has further increased engagement and driven more inbound calls.

Relevance In A Crowded Landscape

Perhaps even harder to address than engagement is the fact College in My Future is not the only early college savings program, leaving parents to sort through competing messaging.

In 2022, California launched a program called CalKIDS, which provides $500 to low-income public school students. This accounts for approximately 85% of the school district the Excite Foundation supports. The federal government is also launching its own program under Tax Code Section 530A, commonly known as “Trump Accounts.” These provide $1,000 for children born in certain years, with additional funding coming from philanthropic sources like the Dell Foundation.

“That raises the question: is our program still needed?” Hogan asks. “We’ve continued, but we now spend more time talking about CalKids than our own program because we want families to access $500, not just $50.”

Thankfully, all these options do not have to be mutually exclusive.

“One limitation of CalKids is that parents can’t contribute additional funds,” Hogan says. “Our program could complement that.”

CalKids also functions more like a 529 plan with restrictions on qualifying expenses. Despite its name, College in My Future does not.

“Our program used to be restricted, but based on feedback from our parent advisory group, we removed those,” Hogan explains.

Now, when children turn 18, they can use the funds from their Excite Foundation accounts for anything, not just education expenses.

In 2023, Excite Credit Union and Excite Foundation received separate grants totaling a $1 million from California’s ScholarShare Investment Board (SIB) to continue to raise awareness of early childhood savings. Looking ahead, Hogan says he hopes to identify more ways to consolidate options and maximize impact.

The post Excite Foundation Breaks Down Barriers For Children’s Savings appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Credit unions committed to serving members with limited or impaired credit operate at the intersection of access, trust, and protection. Fraud management plays a critical role in that mission, but many accept fraud losses that are neither inevitable nor sustainable.

Internal portfolio analysis reveals a striking disparity across the industry. While the average fraud loss rate hovers around 25%, some institutions operate with loss rates as low as 6% without restricting access, increasing false positives, or eroding member trust. The difference between these outcomes: strategy.

The Financial Impact Of The Gap

To understand what this gap means in practical terms, consider a mid-sized credit union with $7 million in annual dispute dollars.

• At a 25% fraud loss rate, approximately $1.75 million of that total reflects loss tied to process inefficiencies, delayed resolution, and misclassified disputes.
• At a 6% loss rate, that loss drops to roughly $420,000.

That’s a difference of $1.33 million every year. For institutions operating on thin margins, this gap can materially impact financial performance.

Why Credit Unions Feel This More Acutely

Research by Cornerstone Advisors provides context for why many credit unions struggle to close this gap. Credit unions earned an average fraud experience score of 75, placing them squarely in “C-grade” territory and trailing several large issuers.

Only 5% of credit union cardholders rated their fraud experience an A, while nearly a quarter graded it a D or F.

Notably, the biggest gaps appeared in:

• Provisional credit issuance.
• Investigation and documentation collection.

These steps are where friction accumulates through manual handoffs, inconsistent timelines, limited self-service, and poor visibility into case status. While more than half of cardholders believe their disputes are resolved within a week, Cornerstone’s research shows 1 in 5 experiences resolution times longer than two weeks, often due to operational bottlenecks rather than investigative complexity.

For credit unions serving subprime or financially stressed members, these delays carry outsized consequences. Access to funds matters more, patience is thinner, and trust is more fragile.

Fraud Experience Is A Relationship Decision

Cornerstone’s data underscores a critical reality: fraud resolution quality directly shapes member behavior. Among cardholders who rated their experience an A:

• 87% reported increased confidence in their institution.
• 39% increased card usage.
• 81% were more likely to add products.
• 83% said the relationship was strengthened.

By contrast, poor experiences drive disengagement, reduced card usage, and attrition.

Proof The Gap Is Real And Fixable

Rogue Credit Union’s experience illustrates what’s possible with the right operational strategy.

“We were seeing about $2.5 million in fraud losses a year,” says James Richie, vice president of payment services at Rogue Credit Union ($4.2B, Medford, OR). “Now, with Quavo, we’ve been able to cut that by close to 60–70%.”

Institutions closing the gap between 25% and 6% loss rates consistently focus on:

• Parallelized investigations instead of linear workflows.
• Clear, auditable provisional credit handling aligned with Reg E and Reg Z.
• Real-time visibility into case status for staff and members.
• Fewer handoffs and less rework across dispute teams.

Protecting The Mission By Eliminating Waste

Serving the underserved does not require absorbing losses as a cost of compassion. Every avoidable fraud dollar represents longer wait times for real victims, fewer resources for prevention, and less capacity to support members when it matters most.

Credit unions that modernize fraud operations are discovering that lower losses, stronger relationships, and better experiences are not competing priorities. They are the same outcome delivered through better strategy.

Explore the full Fraud Experience Differentiator from Cornerstone Advisors x Quavo.

Steve Durney is VP of Partnerships & Alliances at Quavo. Contact him at steve.durney@quavo.com.

Quavo is a technology partner and strategic advisor helping financial institutions resolve fraud and disputes faster and more transparently. Its award-winning platform automates the dispute lifecycle end to end, enabling institutions to reduce losses, ensure compliance, and strengthen customer trust at scale.

The post Serving The Underserved Without Accepting Preventable Fraud Losses appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

For the past 20 years, Holy Rosary Credit Union ($487.1M, Rochester, NH) has operated a career and technical education (CTE) banking program at Spaulding High School through the Richard W. Creteau Regional Technology Center, pairing classroom instruction with an on‑campus branch. This year, enrollment is at full capacity. There’s even a waitlist.

But it wasn’t always that way.

The New Hampshire cooperative made some changes due to the impact of COVID. Because the program relies heavily on hands-on instruction, a staffing gap and lack of in-person instruction put its future at risk. Five years ago, Carlynne Pouliot, who was at the time assistant vice president of financial services, stepped in to rebuild the program. Today, it’s on firmer footing.

“It’s really evolved in the past four years,” Pouliot says. “This is our most successful year since the pandemic.”

According to Pouliot, who is now vice president of retail and business development, student feedback and a deeper relationship with school administration has helped strengthen the program. The biggest factor, however, was finding the right teacher.

“I have the best students,” says Kayleigh Erwin, who has run the program for two years. “Yes, they can be a little silly. Of course, they’re high schoolers, but they are still hardworking.”

Real World Experience Is The Differentiator

Sometimes, the best way to learn is by doing. HRCU’s flagship course is Banking & Financial Support Services, a year-long course that blends financial literacy with workforce development.

In the classroom, students cover personal finance topics such as budgeting, saving, and investing while also learning about banking regulations and working with members.

“The first month is learning cash handling, confidentiality, and our teller system,” Erwin says. “Even if they don’t go into banking, it’s usually their first customer service experience.”

The on-campus branch is open three days a week, and each student is assigned one shift per week as a part of their instruction. There, they handle real member transactions with the same systems tellers use in all HRCU branches. Additionally, students in the Hoy Rosary banking program have the opportunity to earn college credit.

“Students in the tech center can earn three free college credits, so this helps them save money,” Erwin says.

Last year, Erwin worked with Great Bay Community College, submitting her credentials and curriculum for approval. Now her class counts as ECON 225 Personal Finance (worth three credits).

Pouliot says this helps to further connect academics with real-world careers.

“Research shows students who earn college credits in high school are more likely to enroll, stay enrolled, and graduate,” she says.

Students in the year-long program can also earn a $750 scholarship from HRCU based on their performance.

Students who might not want to commit to a year-long class have the option to take Introduction to Banking. This eight-week feeder course for the main program covers the same personal finance topics but offers a more general overview of banking concepts and industry basics, such as the history of the credit union movement. The shorter format lowers the barrier to entry and has proved to be popular.

“It increased enrollment,” Pouliot says. “Next year we expect 20 students, split into two classes. We have already filled next year’s program.”

Student Growth. New Opportunities.

The program’s growth and popularity has enabled HRCU to offer an expanded extended learning opportunity (ELO) this year. This advanced, individualized experience is designed to allow select students to take full ownership of branch operations.

“One of our students this year will be an intern next year running the branch for a dedicated class period,” Pouliot says. “She’ll have a job description role responsibilities. We’re fully confident in her skills.”

Responsibilities include opening the branch, managing a cash drawer, and handling day-to-day operations on their own. The role also extends beyond the classroom, incorporating a paid internship component during both the school year and summer.

What sets the ELO apart is it’s fully self-directed.

“There is no curriculum,” Pouliot says. “We create a job description, they come into the role, and then they self-operate. They have to connect back to the ELO director about their training, their experiences, and the projects they’re working on.”

The credit union trusts these students to operate at a professional level, making this the highest tier of responsibility within the program and a direct bridge to workforce readiness. Moving forward, HRCU hopes to expand this offering to accommodate more students in the future.

Enrollment and participation are important success metrics for these courses, however HRCU also monitors branch usage, account openings, and how effective the program is as an opportunity to help students adapt into the career world.

In regard to that last item, the credit union has multiple success stories, including one from several years ago in which a former student stuck with banking and eventually returned to work at HRCU as its consumer lending manager. According to Pouliot, they remain in the industry to this day after moving to a different state.

More recently, a student who graduated from the program last year as a senior is now working full-time in the credit union’s main office.

“We also hired a part-time student from our program last year,” Pouliot says. “He’s in his junior year of high school, so he works with us every Saturday.”

Evolution Based On Student Voices

Perhaps the biggest reason the banking program is so popular is the fact that student feedback plays such a major role, not just in how HRCU structures classes but in how it approaches youth banking overall. This year, HRCU established an annual volunteer student focus group open to all students.

Pouliot says it’s been an invaluable resource.

“Every piece of data we’ve got from those focus groups we’ve put into play,” the VP says. “Now, marketing and I can present to our executive team about how we can restructure our teen accounts based on the feedback we’re receiving from those focus groups.”

Student insights support services, too, not just products. For example, students told HRCU they wanted to know more about budgeting, so the credit union is hosting a seminar on the subject in May just for them. Erwin says there’s a strong interest in how savings and credit work, and she receives several questions about how students can get the most out of their money. She also says students are a lot more engaged than some might think.

“There’s a misconception that students aren’t motivated, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” she says. “They want to learn, attend college, and give back. They challenge themselves. They hold jobs while balancing CTE, clubs, and volunteer work. They are working.”

Hands-On And All-In

Pouliot says HRCU’s banking program relies heavily on participation from credit union leadership and strong integration with Spaulding High School and the surrounding community.

“Our board is hands-on,” she says. “We have our chair of the board, our vice chair of the board, and another board member who attend the focus groups. When we do donations at the school, the board comes.”

The credit union also hosts panels with employees from different departments so students can see different career paths that are available.

“We invite the business program, the marketing program, and our banking program,” Pouliot says. “It’s a well-rounded panel.”

The value of a strong relationship with school administrators also cannot be understated.

“Anytime we have challenges, we go to the school administration,” Pouliot says. “There’s a director of the CTE and she really helps us create our partnership. We work together as one big team.”

HRCU even attends open houses and orientations for incoming eighth graders, and credit union staff are regulars at events like fundraisers and sports games.

Concern for community is one of the industry’s cooperative principles, and it’s one HRCU emphasizes when working within the school. For example, after learning how many students rely on a local food pantry, the credit union and its student participants began making regular contributions, including organizing donations and physically helping stock it. Students also attend community events the credit union is involved in.

“They’re giving back to their peers, and they value it,” Pouliot says. “They embrace the community impact of the credit union, and that’s huge.”

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