Brand integration isn’t something to tackle alone. Luckily, credit union marketers have myriad ways to make great connections within the industry and learn from the experiences of others. From conferences to professional groups, league support, and even Callahan Executive Roundtables, an extensive network is a valuable resource for leaders.

Here, three credit union marketing leaders provide experience-based tips for approaching the challenge.

1. Find Commonalities

“Look for what both organizations have in common,” says Kendrick Walker, vice president of marketing and business development for MyUSA Credit Union ($343.5M, Lebanon, OH).

His own credit union, MyUSA, was born from the merger of MidUSA Credit Union and Heartland Federal Credit Union in the summer of 2021. The merger combined state-chartered and federally chartered entities that were founded to serve steelworkers on the one hand and the communications industry on the other.

“Even though our organizations served different core memberships, we were able to lean in to how everyone in the communities we serve comes together,” Walker says.

That shared sense of place became the foundation for MyUSA’s brand identity as the credit union focused on the local creeks and waterways its Greater Miami Valley communities enjoy.

“We all enjoy getting outside, hiking on the miles of local trails or taking canoes or kayaks on the water,” Walker says. “It supersedes everything else and binds us together. We all love calling Southwestern Ohio home.”

2. Read From The Same Page

When Hiway Federal Credit Union and SPIRE Credit Union merged in early 2024 and rebranded as Blaze Credit Union ($4.5B, Falcon Heights, MN), leaders of the combined entity worked together to overcome the hurdles of merging two strong brands and similarly sized institutions.

“Since this was a merger of equals, we knew we had to change the name to create a new cooperative with a new vision,” says Lisa Lehman, vice president of marketing and business development for Blaze. “Once everybody got around that idea, the actions we needed to take became much clearer, and it was easier to start having conversations.”

The internal team began by brainstorming about who Blaze wanted to be, what its history was, how it defined values, what its future would look like, and what messages it wanted to put into the market.

“During the initial stages, it was just a few senior leaders involved in the discussion,” Lehman says. “We also interviewed several people from each organization to better understand their thoughts and what their credit union was all about.

As that process continued, the marketing teams from both organizations along with an outside agency and a couple of executives led the charge to rebrand. The team completed most of this work behind-the-scenes as SPIRE and Hiway didn’t know for certain whether members and regulators would approve the merger, but they had to have things ready to go.

Like MyUSA, before becoming Blaze, SPIRE and Hiway served two very different fields of membership. Fortunately, Blaze had a common thread to build upon.

“We had a pick-up truck mascot named Archie after our founder Edgar Archer,” Lehman says. “That pick-up truck tied in nicely to the road that was so prevalent in Hiway’s brand, so we started going down that path and discussing the road of life and blazing trails.”

3. Tell A Compelling Story

Following the merger of Charlotte Metro and Premier FCU, the internal team knew the combined organization needed a brand that would embrace all its communities while symbolizing its mission to teach, guide, direct, and educate consumers so they may live a richer, more meaningful, and expansive lifestyle.

That’s the story behind Skyla Credit Union ($1.6B Charlotte, NC).

“The new Skyla brand embodies our vision — building financial freedom for all — by providing the support and personalized banking experience to help our members plan, implement, and achieve their goals,” says Rachel Garnham, vice president of marketing for Skyla Credit Union. “Our positioning strategy is the story of possibility: Skyla is your friendly, neighborhood credit union — here to make things possible! We’re in your community, meeting you wherever you are in your financial journey, and helping put your goals within reach.”

4. Pay Homage To History

Although the focus of any rebranding is typically on the future, taking the time to understand and pay homage to the past is also important.

“As we rolled out our new brand, we acknowledged our roots in the steel and communications industries,” Walker says.

That recognition of the new cooperative’s dual legacy was present in everything from MyUSA’s press releases to its website and brand introduction video.

“We still have a branch where we lean into those roots, using more blue-collar imagery, as it’s located in what was AK Steel, now Cleveland-Cliffs,” he says.

For Blaze, getting the right people in the room — including leadership, board, and marketing representatives from both credit unions — helped ensure the new brand reflected the legacies of SPIRE and Hiway.

“Rebranding after a merger requires marrying the past with where you want to go in the future,” Lehman says. “Your brand should help tell your story. How your credit union is different from other financial institutions and how you use that difference to benefit your marketplace are what make you stand out.”

5. Communicate Clearly. Communicate Often.

All three credit unions tout the importance of external and internal communications, relying on physical letters, emails, social posts, PR announcements, and mass media like TV, billboards, and digital advertising. Plus, branch signage.

“We focused on getting our name out into the market and clearly tying it back to SPIRE and Hiway,” says Lehman at Blaze. “All of our messaging the first three to four months focused on that key message: Hiway and SPIRE are now Blaze.”

According to Lehman, the credit union opened a record number of new checking accounts in the first six months after the rebrand Blaze.

For Skyla, its biggest surprise was how long the trademarking process took. However, that also provided the credit union the time it needed to roll out its new name and brand all at once.

“We kept our member communication timeline short,” Garnham says. “Throughout the merger, members were aware that we were working toward a new name for the unified organization. Once ready, we ripped off the band-aid quickly and flipped member-facing assets at the same time.”

6. Address Concerns … But Stay Positive

Change, even positive change, is stressful. MyUSA found involving staff as well as its leadership team in the rebranding process was helpful.

“We did a high-level survey of staff to see what they understood about a brand in general, how the organizations were viewed in the past, and what they’d like to see in the future,” Walker says.

From there, the leadership team explored various brand attributes and even conducted its own brand camp to ensure everyone was on the same page and set goals for what they wanted to accomplish together. Overall, the entire process took approximately two months — a tight timeframe for developing an entirely new brand.

According to Lehman at Blaze, employees and members alike both had strong affiliations with the SPIRE and Hiway names going into their merger.

“We tried to be positive about the change,” she says. “Our approach has been to consistently focus on the benefits and how this helps us compete in the market.”

7. Celebrate The New Brand

When it comes to new-brand employee buy-in, celebration is the name of the game. Daily touchpoints can include surveys, focus groups, online and in-person meetings, scavenger hunts, new swag, and more; a big event that reveals the new brand and creates excitement is another effective way to make a splash.

Blaze hosted a launch party for its new name in November 2023. More than 600 associates attended the event, which included dinner and a program that addressed the new name, what it meant, brand colors, and more.

“The official name change happened Jan. 1, 2024, so the timing was great,” Lehman says. “It helped us build excitement and prepare our team to talk about the new brand.”

Choosing a new brand is a deeply personal decision that carries the weight of legacy, identity, and future vision. The name must reflect the organization’s mission while honoring its roots and inspiring its future. And once the credit union has its name, it must craft a story that members can connect with and rally behind.

“It’s not any different from naming a child on some level,” Lehman says. “A marketer’s job is to tell the story. You can’t sell a secret, which is why we are so focused on clearly explaining what our name means and how it ties back to our mission and vision.”

The post 7 Tips To Rebrand After A Major Merger appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Amid industry consolidation, the average credit union size has jumped 186% in the past 10 years, growing from $188.2 million to $538.2 million as credit unions chase the efficiencies that come with scale.

Mergers are growing in scale, too. As of June 30, 2025, the average asset size for a merged credit union was $66.3 million. By comparison, 65% of all credit union mergers since 2019 included institutions with less than $20 million in assets. Even larger mergers are on the horizon, with plans in motion from:

• Wings Financial Credit Union ($9.5B, Apple Valley, MN) and Ent Credit Union ($10.3B, Colorado Springs, CO).
• Digital Federal Credit Union ($12.7B, Marlborough, MA) and First Tech Federal Credit Union ($17.1B, San Jose, CA).
• CommunityAmerica Credit Union ($5.4B, Lenexa, KS) and Unify Financial Federal Credit Union ($3.5B, Allen, TX).

On the bank front, seven credit unions in 2025 have reached an agreement to acquire a bank, down from 17 in 2024. Although the boards have approved these mergers, the agreements still need to clear regulatory approval.

MERGER NUMBERS AND RATE
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: Callahan & Associates

MERGERS COMPLETED BY QUARTER
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: Callahan & Associates

ASSETS OF MERGED CREDIT UNIONS
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: Callahan & Associates

AVERAGE ASSET SIZE OF MERGED CREDIT UNIONS
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: Callahan & Associates

CREDIT UNION MERGERS
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: Callahan & Associates

CREDIT UNION BANK ACQUISITION BY YEAR
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: Callahan & Associates

AVERAGE ASSET SIZE AND CHARTER COUNT
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: Callahan & Associates

CHARTER COUNT BY ASSET SIZE
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS
SOURCE: Callahan & Associates

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The post Credit Union Mergers Are On The Rise appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Top-Level Takeaways

• Nearly 80 bank deals have been announced since 2012, generating big headlines but a small percentage of overall credit union M&A activity.
• In some cases, bank purchases are cheaper than de novo expansion efforts.
• Good relationships are crucial to success — with regulators, diligence partners, the institution being acquired, and more.

Although a bank purchase might not be front and center in the minds of most credit union leaders, strategic growth plans and ready-made opportunities to make an impact in new markets are driving more of these transactions.

A dozen such deals have been announced so far this year, eclipsing 2023’s total, for a total of just under 80 bank purchases since 2012, according to America’s Credit Unions.

But what exactly does it take to buy a bank and see the process through successfully? And once the transaction is done, how can credit unions guarantee success? Here are five lessons from credit unions who have been there.

1. Buying A Bank Can Be Cheaper Than Building New Branches

United Federal Credit Union ($4.1B, Saint Joseph, MI) purchased its first bank in 2011 and has been credited with starting the industry’s bank-purchasing trend. Leaders there start the process by conducting a tremendous amount of research before entering a new market, and CEO Terry O’Rourke sees the clear economic benefits of buying versus building.

“We’d really only enter a brand-new market through a merger or acquisition,” O’Rourke says. “It’s far too expensive to enter a market where you have no presence and just start building branches.”

Pima Federal Credit Union ($1.2B, Tucson, AZ)  is currently wading through the regulatory-approval process following an agreement to acquire Republic Bank of Arizona. The credit union hopes to close the transaction by year-end.

Pima initially planned to expand through de novo branches, but CEO Eric Renaud says the opportunity to purchase a bank was too good to pass up because it meant not having to start from scratch in a new community.

“Our board has always had an appetite for mergers or a potential purchase, but honestly a bank purchase was probably not exactly first and foremost on our minds,” Renaud says. “For many years, as part of our strategic planning process, we’ve focused on growing geographically throughout our state.”

Buying Republic made sense in part because it offered a significantly shorter payback period compared to building new brick-and-mortar facilities. Branching out geographically also helps the credit union reduce risk.

“Moving beyond our immediate community means we’re not entirely subject to the winds of the economic environment in just Pima County or Tucson,” Renaud says. “We’ve had Maricopa County in our sights because we saw a good market and an opportunity to help grow membership and make a difference in those communities.”

Don’t try to make all markets the same. What works in one place might not work in another.”

2. Understand The Opportunity – And The Risks

Dort Financial Credit Union ($2.3B, Grand Blanc, MI) purchased Florida-based Flagler Bank in late 2023 and launched Flagler Credit Union as a division of Dort Financial shortly thereafter. The credit union’s board had discussed strategic expansion into the Sunshine State even before it was approached with the opportunity to buy the bank. Not only were the two culturally and financially aligned, but an internal study showed many Dort members were already frequent Florida visitors.

“Some of it is the snowbird effect — with members spending a few months at a time there — but we also saw a region that was economically booming,” says Brian Waldron, CEO of Dort Financial. “We wanted to serve our existing members who are there and gain geographic diversification for our portfolio. In the West Palm Beach area, specifically, there is lots of growth and opportunity to offer small business and consumer products alike.”

For Pima, knowing when to pass on an opportunity is just as important as knowing when to move forward.

“It’s also important to determine early on if something isn’t for you,” Renaud says. “Having a good strategic consulting partner is a critical first step. But even before that, the CEO needs to have a conversation with the board to understand what their appetite is and what they want to see.”

An appetite for market expansion is crucial, adds Renaud, as are strong capital ratios. Pima and Republic also complemented each another. Republic’s forte was commercial lending — an area where Pima wanted to expand — and the credit union was already well-versed in consumer banking and lending.

“Both of our institutions also do cannabis banking, which was a big plus,” Renaud says. “It was important to Republic to continue serving its clients in that space and the deposit relationships provide liquidity.”

Prior to entering any new market, United FCU’s due diligence process considers size, population growth, competitors, the local economy, and more.

“We prefer markets that aren’t major metro areas and have populations between 500,000 and 1 million people — where we’re able to make more of an impact,” O’Rourke says.

United also has a minimum size requirement, since small M&A deals take the same amount of time and resources as larger ones.

“All else being equal, we prefer to go into a market with more scale,” O’Rourke says. “Generally speaking, you’re able to find larger bank-acquisition targets than credit union merger partners.”

3. A One-Size-Fits-All Approach Won’t Work

Although credit unions are focused on finding the right partner, so, too, are community banks. According to Renaud, the fact Pima also is headquartered in the Grand Canyon State made a big difference for Republic.

“It’s a small community bank that is super invested in its community and it was important to find a financial institution in Arizona,” he says.

United’s potential M&A deals include a rigorous assessment of the other institution’s culture.

“We want to retain the employees from the bank or credit union,” O’Rourke says. “Entering a new market becomes exponentially easier if you maintain the people.”

United views itself as a national credit union and appreciates local nuances in the various markets it serves.

“Don’t try to make all markets the same,” O’Rourke advises. “What works in one place might not work in another. For example, North Carolina is a very strong commercial market, whereas Nevada is a very strong mortgage market for us.”

4. Don’t Go It Alone

Pima runs a lean shop and didn’t have a lot of extra resources available for due diligence.

“We took some initial cursory views and then hired several partners to help us dig deeper from both a financial-modeling and forecasting perspective as well as on the regulatory front once we settled on a fair price and got past the negotiations,” Renaud says. “We hired attorneys, an investment banker, and a third party to conduct our loan portfolio review, which the credit union also reviewed.”

Along with hiring attorneys and outsiders to help review the deal and the bank’s loan portfolio, Pima leadership also reached out to NCUA.

“We didn’t want our regulatory bodies to find out in a letter or when we submitted the application,” the CEO says. “We wanted to partner with them proactively and treat them as a resource in this process.”

Likewise, the bank reached out to the FDIC and Arizona Department of Financial Institutions to let them know about the institutions’ plans.

The application process required Pima to provide the FDIC with a plan on how the credit union would go about “member-izing” Republic Bank’s existing customer base. Those customers must opt-in to membership and the credit union will need to contact each one to encourage that. Pima created a communication plan to address that process.

5. Communicate – But Be Patient, Too

Communication is key to the success of acquiring and maintaining members. It’s also important for internal teams on both sides of a transaction.

“Our team over-communicated with members and staff,” says Dort’s Waldron. “We sent letters, emails, etc. As members ourselves, we understand that change is difficult.”

Dort had its own employees on-site to assist after the conversion, but maintaining the bank’s employees made things easier because the bank’s customers saw the faces they already knew and trusted.

Communicating with credit union staff was also crucial — especially for those closer to home.

“It’s amazing how many of our employees in Michigan wanted to know more about what we were doing in Florida, and the bank employees in Florida needed to understand the acquisition,” Waldron says. “There can be trepidation on both sides, which makes it important to keep both teams informed even before you start communicating with customers/members.”

And, he adds, don’t forget that these things don’t happen quickly.

“Take the time to align products and services,” he advises. “But also take a deep breath and be patient.

The post 5 Lessons For Buying A Bank appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Top-Level Takeaways

• After the merger of two large Minnesota credit unions, Blaze Credit Union has embarked on a mission to unify operations and values under a new brand identity.
• By integrating the cultures of both credit unions, the rebranding efforts of the marketing team has fostered a cohesive environment for staff and members alike.

The National Credit Union Administration approved 26 mergers in the first quarter of 2024. Although the number was lower than the same period in 2023 and 2022, the increasing popularity of mergers between equals presents marketers and leadership teams with some distinctive challenges.

From communicating effectively to selecting a name that reflects the legacies of both organizations, rebranding after a merger is a complex undertaking that often occurs under a compressed timeline.

In 2024, SPIRE Credit Union and Hiway Credit Union merged to form Blaze Credit Union ($4.2B, Falcon Heights, MN). At the time, Lisa Lehman was vice president of marketing and business development at SPIRE. Today, she is vice president of marketing at Blaze Credit Union, and here she shares insights from the newly formed cooperative’s rebranding experience.

What was the first thing you did after learning about the merger?

Lisa Lehman: It was a big change for us and a little bit of a surprise at first. Both credit unions had strong brands and awareness in our market. Since this was a merger of equals, we knew we had to change the name to create a new cooperative with a new vision. Once everybody got around that idea, the actions we needed to take became much clearer, and it was easier to start having conversations.

What kinds of conversations did you have during the process?

LL: We began by brainstorming about who we want to be, what our history is, how we define our values, what our future will look like, and what messages we want to put into the market.

During the initial stages, it was just a few senior leaders involved in the discussion. We also interviewed several people from each organization to better understand their thoughts and what their credit union was all about.

As we went further into the process, the marketing teams from both organizations along with an outside agency and a couple of executives led the charge to rebrand. It was largely behind-the-scenes at that point as we didn’t know whether the merger would be approved, but we had to get things ready to go.

What considerations went into selecting the new name?

LL: We talked about our history and our fields of membership. One of Hiway’s biggest select employee groups (SEG) was the Minnesota Department of Transportation, so a lot of its branding was around highways and roads. SPIRE was very much community-based and had a history of serving a lot of different SEGs.

We had a pick-up truck mascot named Archie after our founder Edgar Archer. That pick-up truck tied in nicely to the road that was so prevalent in Hiway’s brand, so we started going down that path and discussing the road of life and blazing trails. We knew we wanted an action word and a real word that people could see and understand easily.

What did it take to come to a name all parties agreed on?

LL: Naturally, there were a lot of opinions. It’s not any different from naming a child on some level.

A marketer’s job is to tell the story and that’s what we needed to do throughout this process. You can’t sell a secret, which is why we are so focused on clearly explaining Blaze — what it means and how it ties back to our mission and vision. Of course, it was also vital for the CEO and board chair to be on board.

What were your main concerns regarding rebranding? How did you address those?

LL: No matter what name you pick, not everyone’s going to be happy. Some will like it more than others. Employees and members alike both had very strong affiliations with our old names. We tried to be positive about the change. We talked about what it meant and pointed out the additional benefits we can now bring to our community, members, and employees.

We really took the best of both words from Hiway and SPIRE. Through this merger, the staff got access to better benefits and our members benefited through more branches and more access. Soon, they’ll also enjoy the upgraded digital banking system we’re working on.

Overall, our approach has been to consistently focus on the benefits and how this helps us compete in the market.

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How else did you communicate?

LL: Once the members voted in favor, we moved quickly. We hosted a name launch party with our 600-plus associates in November 2023. It was a nice event that included dinner and a program with a lot of information about why we were changing to Blaze, what it meant, why we selected these colors for the new brand, etc.

The official name change happened Jan. 1, 2024, so the timing was great. It helped us build excitement and prepare our team to talk to members and people on the street about the new brand. We all get questions. Our community wants to know: Why? What does Blaze mean?

Also, swag. Team members really want items with the new logo, so we created cool new pieces, including corporate wear, that our folks love.

What positive results have you seen to date?

LL: We’re very happy with where we are today. People are connecting the dots, and we’re seeing a record number of new checking accounts opened in just the past six months since we’ve become Blaze.

We’re still in the process of changing all our signage. We couldn’t start changing prematurely, and we have 27, soon to be 28, branches. However, that will all be done by the end of the summer.

What closing advice do you have for other credit unions?

LL: You need to get the right people in the room, including leadership, board, and marketing representatives from both credit unions. It’s important not only to get their buy-in but also to hear their voices and share their stories.

Rebranding after a merger requires marrying the past with where you want to go in the future. At the end of the day, your brand should help tell your story. How your credit union is different from other financial institutions and how you use that difference to benefit your marketplace are what make you stand out.

— This interview has been edited and condensed.

The post Change Your Name. Blaze Your Trail. appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

The Illinois-based cooperative has built the bulk of its business around scaling to meet the needs of some of America’s most formidable companies, including Target, GEICO, UnitedHealth Group, Cardinal Health, and HCA Healthcare. The credit union serves nearly 350,000 members, and its top six company relationships alone translate to 1.2 million employees eligible for membership.

“Relationships are our secret sauce,” says president and CEO Mike Valentine, who has led the cooperative for nearly 30 years. “Relationships we built with people we knew in the ’80s and ’90s who went off and ran other companies. They had been a member of our credit union, they liked what the credit union was, and said, ‘Can you do this for my company?’ It’s kind of a fairy tale story.”

To be sure, BCU has faced the same challenges as other credit unions: the post-pandemic shift to remote work, the mortgage bust, inflation, and interest rate volatility. But the credit union continues to add company partners, and its seven community branches have collectively grown to $1 billion in assets. A newly launched CUSO focused on financial wellbeing has brought in 1,300 new members so far this year.

“We have the trifecta of charters,” says Jill Sammons, senior vice president of marketing, wellbeing, and wealth advisory. “We have our company partners, we have our community charter, and we have our new associational charter.”

Sales-Driven Culture, Strategic M&As

Founded in 1981 as Baxter Credit Union, BCU began by building deposits and eventually making loans. In 1984, founding CEO Rex Johnson hired a young Valentine — then a branch manager at Household Finance in Waukegan — to manage loan collections and two salespeople.

“Rex’s vision was to create a great lending culture and be really good at lending and really good at sales,” Valentine says. “At that time, sales was not a good word, but it was selling that we were doing.”

After 10 years, Johnson left the credit union and took Valentine with him to form the consultancy Lending Solutions. Valentine passed up a chance to be CEO by leaving, but six months later, he was invited back to compete for the job against three other candidates. Valentine quips that he was selected probably “because it’s the devil you know.” When he took the helm in 1994, Baxter Credit Union had approximately $225 million in assets and one large company partner, Baxter International.

“Our big thing in the late ’90s was to say, ‘how do we get to $1 billion? What does that look like?’” the CEO says. “One of the first things we did was open an office in Crystal Lake, IL, and said, ‘let’s try to be in the community.’”

Also in the 1990s, Caremark International, the forerunner of pharmacy sales giant CVS Caremark, was spun off from Baxter International as a publicly traded company. Leveraging existing relationships, BCU began offering financial services to Caremark employees. In the 2000s, BCU added even more large SEGs from the medical field, including CardinalHealth and Boston Scientific.

The credit union achieved a major milestone in 2011, when Target Credit Union, a $30 million-asset credit union based in nearby Minneapolis, MN, extended a request for proposal (RFP) looking for a buyer with the scale to expand services to some 400,000 employees working at nearly 2,000 stores, distribution centers, and corporate offices spread across all 50 states.

Target Corporation was also committed to supporting the physical, mental, and financial wellbeing of its employees, and BCU’s well-established financial wellness program — already integrated into many other client wellness programs — was a major bonus. BCU won the bid to acquire Target Credit Union and helped it grow to $1 billion in assets during the next decade while operating as a division of BCU.

Acquiring a credit union in the retail sector marked the first time BCU stepped outside the health care field, but it opened opportunities for new relationships with insurance and financial services firms.

“That was a pivotal moment for BCU and our board,” Valentine says. “We always justified our expansion because we went with many companies that had a relationship with Baxter. We were in a whole new relationship with a company, but we won on the merits of who we are, what we are, and what we promised to do.”

Leveraging Well-Known Brands

BCU’s next big opportunity came in 2017 with UnitedHealth Group, one of the world’s largest health insurers, with more than 300,000 employees in the United States. Headquartered in Minneapolis, UnitedHealth Group’s leadership had already heard how their colleagues at Target were benefitting from the merger with BCU — particularly through financial wellbeing offerings — and they wanted to learn more. BCU pitched a plan to the insurer and ultimately won an RFP to be its employee credit union.

Then came the 2020 acquisition of $146 million-asset GEICO Federal Credit Union. Like Target, GEICO wanted to expand nationwide, and the two parties completed the deal during the height of the pandemic, even closing the transaction virtually.

Two years later, HCA Healthcare, which operates 184 hospitals in the United States and United Kingdom, also signed a contract with BCU to extend financial services to more than 200,000 employees. Not surprisingly, HCA’s longstanding relationship with Baxter International once again helped BCU get its foot in the door.

Importantly, BCU allows these credit unions to retain their original names on website, signage, correspondence, and all other external indicators, incorporating an endorsed brand strategy that includes “A division of BCU” beneath each logo. That started when Target insisted on keeping its name — contrary to the rebranding that is usually inevitable in the wake of an acquisition — and become a major point of differentiation for BCU in negotiations with future large accounts.

“There’s a lot of brand value, as you can imagine, that comes with the Target name,” Valentine says.

Scaling To Meet Demand

Offering services for and recruiting new members from a SEG can take years of discussion and relationship building, with Valentine typically involved at the CEO level while team members work with HR, pay and benefits, finance, and other departments to communicate the credit union’s financial and wellbeing value to employees.

“For instance, we rolled out UnitedHealth Group in 2017,” says Dave Blum, the executive vice president responsible for corporate relationships, business development, branches, digital banking, and marketing. “They did not have a credit union, so we started from ground zero. But we had conversations with them for two years before we rolled them out.”

The launch at UnitedHealth Group was so successful that 17,000 members joined in the first three months.

The market, social, and workplace changes that have taken place since the Great Recession also influence SEG relationships. For example, in a post-COVID world, large corporations are starting to provide comprehensive employee benefits that include ways to improve physical, mental, and financial wellbeing. Blum says BCU looks for partners who rally around those principles.

“That’s what success looks like — if they’re committed to financial wellbeing for their employees,” says Blum, a self-described “recovering banker” who joined BCU 10 years ago.

As the credit union’s SEG base diversified, so did the financial needs of employees across these companies, from front-line associates and warehouse workers to medical professionals and C-level executives. BCU has found that while paycheck sizes differ widely among those groups, the need for sound money-management support and valuable financial products does not.

BCU divides its services to members across three major categories — known internally as Corporate America, Middle America, and Working America — with each segment classified with average credit scores, household incomes, key product offerings, and more. BCU maintains a large portfolio of loans for auto, personal, home, students, and more, plus multiple credit card products ranging from a credit-builder card to cash and travel rewards cards.

“Before we do anything with company partners, we listen,” Blum says. “We try to understand what the need is. We’ve learned a lot over the past 40 years, and we’ve increased our offerings to make sure we have relevant products for every single segment of our company partners’ employees.”

Last year, the credit union increased its support for members who lived paycheck to paycheck. That started by significantly reducing non-sufficient funds and overdraft protection fees and creating Life, Money. You., a CUSO focused on financial wellbeing. The latter effort builds upon a wellness program available to members for years and now available to non-members, as well, by visiting the CUSO’s website or downloading a separate mobile app.

BCU has trained and certified more than 130 financial counsellors across the organization, but in-person seminars and one-on-one counselling are hard to scale to a national level, Sammons says. The new CUSO is investing in technology with the ultimate goal of providing tools to leverage transactional intelligence to help users make better budgeting and spending decisions and ultimately change behaviors.

“That was the impetus for the CUSO — for us to keep a focus on this area and not let financial wellbeing get drowned out in the day-to-day minutia of the rest of the operations of the credit union,” Sammons says. “We wanted to give it its dedicated investment and resources.”

Changes Starting At The Top

Another ingredient in BCU’s “special sauce” for large deals is the credit union’s board of directors. In recent years, as BCU brought on large accounts, C-level executives from those companies have joined BCU’s 11-member board.

Today, only two Baxter International reps sit on the board: Christine Fleming, assistant treasurer, and former Baxter CIO Paul Martin, who serves as vice chairman. Other board members hail from SEG partners and the wider community.

Since 2017, the board has updated its governance policies, established term limits for members, and focused on increasing diversity. Four women now serve on the board, and members represent a range of disciplines, including IT, cybersecurity, HR, legal, risk, and accounting.

“Our board has done an amazing job reinventing itself over the past six years,” says Valentine, adding that a more diverse cohort there has helped BCU talk to new companies and evolve its culture with a greater focus on DEI.

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Navigating The Future

BCU set an ambitious goal of growing membership by 10% this year despite facing a variety of economic headwinds. The credit union operates 42 branches in company partner locations across the United States and in Puerto Rico. Those have historically been a major resource for enrolling new members, but the shift to remote work during the pandemic changed that.

“Pre-pandemic, when we had a branch location at a company partner site, we would probably get up to 50% penetration at that site,” Blum says. “If we didn’t have a branch, it dropped down to 10% or 15% penetration. With the hybrid workforce, there’s less traffic.”

To counter that trend, BCU is exploring ways to offer consultative services and increase financial wellbeing through cashless branches that can be run by a single employee and virtual relationship managers for the 65% of members who don’t work at a location with a branch. Meanwhile, BCU branch managers are reaching out to employees through webinars, direct mail, and employer-sponsored events.

“Our company partners are having the same challenges of how to get engagement at the company level,” Blum says. “We’re a trusted partner, so they are allowing us to use different channels post-pandemic.”

The credit union is using any communication channel its partners allow but also has been investing heavily in digital banking. Last year, the credit union updated its platform with a full line of services that rival those of Bank of America and Chase. Eighty-six percent of members use digital banking.

“We are embracing that digital experience that our members are looking for,” Blum says. “If they want to come into our branch, if they want to call us through the call center, or if they want to go to our app, we want to make sure every experience they have is what they expect at BCU.”

BCU tracks member experience with Net Promotor Score surveys of both members and employees. Member NPS scores have risen from 70.43 in 2011 to 79.16 in 2022, with individual branches scoring as high as an 85.

All 850 employees have gone through a 90-minute exercise to understand the member journey and how BCU can build member relationships, serve as a guide on that journey, and help members through life’s major milestones.

Earlier this year, BCU received the 2023 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award, which recognizes the most engaged workplace cultures in the world based on a wide range of criteria. As part of its workplace efforts, BCU is focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion through a DEI council, culture training, and a course for the entire enterprise on the power of leading inclusively.

“If you have happy employees and engaged employees, that equals happy members and engaged members,” says Lisa Baron, executive vice president and chief human resources officer. “We’ve put a lot of time and effort into developing our staff, making sure we have great benefits for them, and that they enjoy their work and their workplace.”

Valentine credits front-line employees — or financial first responders, as they’re known internally — for building relationships with members.

“It starts with employees and the right attitude,” he says. “We hire for attitude versus skill. You can teach skills, but it’s hard to teach the desire to help people, to serve.”

Like the rest of the financial services industry, BCU is navigating the current economy of high inflation and 22-year-record-high interest rates. The credit union’s mortgage business fell sharply when the Fed began raising interest rates in 2022. Delinquencies on credit cards and indirect loans are creeping up while share growth contracted by 1% in June 2023 as inflation ate away at member savings.

Despite those challenges, Valentine reminds cooperative leaders that, unlike the banks that failed earlier this year, credit unions aren’t governed by stock prices or investors. As a result, BCU can sustain losses and still serve members across middle America when the economy is down.

“We have strong capital, we feel we’re doing the right things, but we’re trying to position ourselves for the recovery,” Valentine says. “It’s been a really good, reflective time for us to say, ‘How are we doing? What are we doing? What have we said ‘no’ to? Are we investing in the right things?’ Two years ago, we could invest in a lot of different things. Now, we’ve got to be laser-focused, so we’ve got to be good at picking the bets.”

This is part of the “Anatomy Of A Credit Union” series, presented every quarter by Callahan & Associates. Read more about BCU or dive into a decade of archives. Contact Callahan to learn about gaining access today.

The post BCU Builds National Reach One Relationship At A Time appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

There were 39 mergers in the second quarter of 2021 and 31 in the first. That total, 70, for the first six months of the year is down one from the same time last year but brings the total from June 2020 to June 2021 to 135.

As of June 30, 2021, there were 5,005 banks and thrifts and 5,136 credit unions in the United States. By comparison, there were nearly 18,000 banks and thrifts in the United States and approximately 15,000 credit unions in 1985. It’s also worth noting that even after eliminating credit union mergers of more than $1 billion, 2021 has recorded the largest average credit union merger size by a wide margin.

Mergers By The Numbers

By total assets, the second quarter of this year saw far more merged away than in the first quarter of the year: $2.4 billion compared to $1.3 billion, or 78.5% more. For the first half of the year, total assets merged away was up 13.7% from the first half of 2021, $3.7 billion compared to $3.3 billion. In trailing one-year numbers, $7.2 billion in member assets were merged into other cooperatives from June 2020 to June 2021.

By average asset size, the average was $61.3 million for credit unions merged away in the second quarter of 2021, up 41.9% from the $43.2 million in average size from the first quarter of 2021. The average assets for merged credit unions in the first half of the year was $53.3 million, down 22.4% from $68.7 million on average in the first half of 2020 although one large $2.2 billion merger skewed the 2020 average value upward.

Industry Consolidation

For-profit and not-for-profit financial institutions have vanished by the thousands in the past 35 years, but banks have done so at a faster rate in recent years. Many small credit unions are resisting merger pressure as they continue to serve a dedicated field of membership.

Bank Acquisitions

Some credit unions are searching for partners in the banking space. Although only one credit-union bank acquisition has officially processed so far in 2021, nine more have been accepted and await regulatory approval.

Mergers By Quarter

Mergers picked up in the second quarter compared to recent periods as economies reopened and credit unions reevaluated their growth options.

Merger Rate Per Year

Mergers have slowed in the past few years, but an active second quarter picked up the projected pace in 2021.

Assets Merged Away Per Year

No credit unions with more than $1 billion have been a part of a merger so far in 2021. Consequently, total assets merging (as a percentage of the full industry) has slowed.

Average Merger Assets (Excluding Mergers >$1B)

Standardizing by eliminating outlying mergers more than $1 billion, 2021 has the largest average merger size of any year prior by a wide margin.

The Largest Mergers In The Past Year

By state, Ohio had the most mergers from June 2020 through June 2021 at 14, followed by New York at 11, Illinois at 10, Pennsylvania at six, and five each for California and Virginia. Only 11 states did not have a credit union acquired by another credit during that time.

The five largest mergers in the second quarter of 2021 were:

• XCEED Financial Credit Union ($981.8m, CA) merged with Kinecta FCU ($5.4B, CA)
• Infinity FCU ($336.3M, ME) merged with Deere Employees Credit Union ($1.4B, IL)
• Premier FCU ($251.6M, NC) merged with Charlotte Metro Credit Union ($798.9M, NC)
• Aspire FCU ($141.6M, NJ) merged with Pentagon FCU ($27.3B, VA)
• Leyden Credit Union ($100.6M, IL) merged with Partnership Financial Credit Union ($248.4M, IL)

The five largest mergers from the first quarter of 2021 were:

• Columbus Metro FCU ($259.0M, OH) merged with Telhio Credit Union ($951.8M, OH)
• NorthStar Credit Union ($211.8M, IL) merged with NuMark Credit Union ($332.6M, IL)
• Lower Valley Credit Union ($128.4M, WA) merged with Self-Help Credit Union ($1.5B, NC)
• Riverset Credit Union ($117.6M, PA) merged with Allegent Community FCU ($151.7M, PA)
• Anderson FCU ($107.5M, SC) merged with Spero Financial Credit Union ($543.0M, SC)

No credit unions acquired more than one other credit union during the first half of 2021. However, from June 2020 to June 2021, PenFed acquired three credit unions totaling $441.7 million in assets; 11 others merged two smaller credit unions into their cooperatives.

A 5-Year Lookback

From June 2016 to June 2021, there were 852 credit union mergers. That’s an average of 170 mergers per year. All told, $32.2 billion in assets were consolidated into another credit union during this period.

The average size of each acquisition was $37.8 million in assets. Five credit unions with more than $1 billion in assets merged into a larger credit union a super merger during the past five years. The largest was Schools Financial Credit Union ($2.2B, CA), which merged into SchoolsFirst FCU ($16.8B, CA) in the first quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, five mergers over the past five years were reverse mergers, where the surviving credit union had less assets than the credit union it acquired.

During the past five years, Pennsylvania had the most mergers with 70, followed by Ohio (58), California and New York (54), and Illinois (50). Every state had at least one merger during that time.

PenFed recorded the most mergers during the past five years. It acquired 16 smaller cooperatives with a total of $2.2 billion assets. American Heritage Credit Union ($3.6B, PA) and Nuvision FCU ($2.8B, CA) had seven mergers each totaling $56.0 million and $785.3 million in assets, respectively. Superior Credit Union ($1.4B, OH) and Peach State Credit Union ($737.1M, GA) recorded six mergers each with total assets of $206.0 million and $113.2 million, respectively.

Bank Acquisitions

In addition to credit unions merging with credit unions, some credit unions have acquired either an entire bank or a handful of bank branch locations. Fourteen credit union-bank transactions occurred between June 2020 and June 2021. Four of these transactions were branch acquisitions, the other 10 were full bank acquisitions.

This article appeared originally on Credit Union Times on Oct. 11, 2021.

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There were 136 credit union mergers in 2020. This was seven fewer than the year prior. Of those, a record-setting two were significant, meaning near or more than $1 billion in assets. It is important to highlight significant mergers because they skew merger activity above the peer average.

Excluding the two outliers, the average asset size of merged credit unions fell in 2020 to $34.7 million. However, since 2015, more than 71% of all credit union mergers included institutions with less than $20 million in assets.

In a departure from recent years, credit union acquisitions of banks contracted. Those fell from 10 in 2019 to five in 2020, with many postponed or pending as of year-end. Read on for insight into key credit union merger trends.

MERGER NUMBERS & RATE

FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 12.31.20

The credit union merger rate declined slightly to 2.5% in 2020.

SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES & NCUA

MERGERS COMPLETED BY QUARTER

FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 12.31.20

In 2020, 136 credit unions merged with other credit unions; that was seven fewer than in 2019.

SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES & NCUA

AGGREGATE ASSETS & PERCENTAGE OF INDUSTRY ASSETS OF MERGED CREDIT UNIONS

FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 12.31.20

As a percentage of industry assets, total merged assets grew 33.9%, or $2.1 billion, year-over year. Excluding significant mergers, total merged assets declined 4.5%, or $217.2 million, during the same period.

SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES & NCUA

AGGREGATE ASSETS OF MERGED CREDIT UNIONS

FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 12.31.20

Including significant mergers, the aggregate assets of merged credit unions in 2020 exceeded 2019 by more than $2 billion.

SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES & NCUA

AVERAGE ASSET SIZE OF MERGED CREDIT UNIONS

FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS (EXCLUDING SIGNIFICANT MERGERS) | DATA AS OF 12.31.20

The average asset size of merged credit unions in 2020 was $34.7 million, up 1.3% from 2019.

SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES & NCUA

CREDIT UNION MERGERS

FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 12.31.20

Credit unions with less than $20 million in assets have accounted for 71% of all mergers since 2015.

SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES & NCUA

CREDIT UNION BANK ACQUISITION BY YEAR

FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 12.31.20

Credit union bank mergers slowed in 2020; however, nine remained pending as of Dec 31.

SOURCE: CALLAHAN & ASSOCIATES & NCUA

Considering A Merger?

Callahan’s Peer-to-Peer has built in merger functionality that allows credit unions to scenario plan possible mergers by combining the call report data of two reporting credit unions to see financial impact using all of our pre-built charts including lending, deposits, income, expenses, capital, staffing, members, infrastructure, electronic offerings, and member metrics.

See For Yourself

The post Credit Union Mergers Fall For The Sixth Straight Year appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

LOANS,MORTGAGES,AUTO LENDING,SHARES,INVESTMENTS,EARNINGS,MEMBER RELATIONSHIPS,HUMAN CAPITAL,COVID-19

The longest economic expansionary period in U.S. history came to an end in the first quarter with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Real GDP decreased at an annual rate of 5.0% as personal consumption and business investment contracted across the quarter.The national unemployment rate increased 0.9 percentage points from February to March following the first wave of jobless claims related to the global pandemic.

Market turbulence prompted the Federal Reserve to adjust rates twice in March. The Fed also reinstated several financial crisis-era programs, including a $700 billion quantitative easing program, in a bid to stabilize a free fall in the equity marketsand ease liquidity challenges in the credit markets.

Key Points

• As of March 31, 2020, over 5,200 credit unions held nearly $1.7 trillion in assets nationwide.
• Loan balances at U.S. credit unions totaled $1.1 trillion in the first quarter, an annual increase of 6.4%. Total loan growth slowed 1.5 percentage points in the past 12 months.
• Share growth accelerated 2.2 percentage points annually to 8.0% as of March 31.
• Membership increased 3.4% year-over-year as almost 4.0 million members joined the credit union movement.
• Average ROA fell 43 basis points during the past 12 months to 0.52%.
• The industry reported 34 mergers in the first quarter.

U.S. UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

DATA AS OF 03.31.20

Callahan & Associates | CreditUnions.com

In the United States, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4% in March 2020.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

CREDIT UNION INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 03.31.20

Callahan & Associates | CreditUnions.com

Assets, shares, investments, and capital all grew at a faster annual rate than one year ago.

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AND S&P 500 AVERAGE

DATA AS OF 03.31.20

Callahan & Associates | CreditUnions.com

The Dow and S&P dropped more than 20% between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, a sign of the pandemic’s impact on equity markets.
Source: Freddie Mac

The Bottom Line

As the economy lost steam in the first quarter, shifts in member behavior impacted credit union balance sheets. On a quarterly basis, increases in first mortgages offset contractions across nearly every loan segment except for used auto. Weak consumerdemand and strong share growth underpinned a 13.0% annual increase in investment balances, which hit $446.5 billion. Credit unions allocated un-lent shares mostly to short-term investments and cash. They now must grapple with a new normal and re-evaluateincome streams and service practices as they navigate an unknown future.

Without official data from the NCUA, Callahan is reporting first quarter data trends from institutions that represent 99.7% of the industry’s assets.

This article appeared originally in Credit Union Strategy & Performance.

The post Macro Overiew And Industry Trends (1Q20) appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Top-Level Takeaways

• DOCO Credit Union merged into Georgia’s Own on Jan. 1, 2020. Data conversion and training were slated to wrap up by early May.

• When the coronavirus pandemic forced employees to work from home, Georgia’s Own had to devise a strategy to complete the final steps of its merger.

CU QUICK FACTS

Georgia’s Own Credit Union
Data as of 03.31.20

HQ: Atlanta, GA
ASSETS: $2.9B
MEMBERS: 204,695
BRANCHES: 23
12-MO SHARE GROWTH: 11.1%
12-MO LOAN GROWTH: 10.1%
ROA: 1.06%

A merger requires more than signed agreements, member votes, and new branding. The two parties also typically spend months migrating systems and undertaking technology and service training to complete the union.

The plan for the merger of DOCO Credit Union a $200 million cooperative in Albany, GA into Georgia’s Own Credit Union ($2.9B, Atlanta, GA) provided for a systems migration in support of an April conversion. A delegation of trainers from Georgia’s Own was slated to make the 180-mile drive south to train up its new team members on the acquiring credit union’s systems by the first weekend of May.

We were intending for everything to happen in person, says Kevan Williamson, senior vice president of enterprise technology at Georgia’s Own.

The coronavirus changed those plans.

Albany experienced one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks, per capita, in the United States, and a non-essential travel ban introduced in late March in and around the city effectively made out-of-town travel impossible. Even so, the merger between the two cooperatives was official and as of mid-March the branding at DOCO locations switched to Georgia’s Own. The credit union had to find a creative way to finish the job.

Converting The Core

During the merger, Georgia’s Own added approximately 85 DOCO employees to its HRIS system and benefits. But although they were official employees of Georgia’s Own, they still needed training in the larger credit union’s systems. The technology, too, still needed to be connected. And, of course, none of this could happen in in person.

Kevan Williamson, SVP of Enterprise Technology, Georgia’s Own Credit Union

The first challenge, Williamson says, was the core conversion.

In a typical post-merger core conversion, plenty of work goes into preparing data to migrate from one system into another. When that’s done, Georgia’s Own brings together staff members of the merged credit union in a war room-style environment and shows a side-by-side comparison of the old and new systems and forms to show how are familiar loans and accounts presented in the new organization. In the case of the DOCO merger, Georgia’s Own had to do both remotely.

The first thing we did was identify every key stakeholder from both institutions and provide the tools to work remotely, Williamson says. Not everyone had that capability.

The credit union ordered laptops and other equipment, troubleshot access issues, and provided a quick systems training for new employees unfamiliar with the new software. Next, Georgia’s Own made sure its vendor partners, including core and debit system providers, had remote access and strong connectivity.

We knew no one would be onsite to resolve potential issues, so we double- and triple-checked remote connections to make sure we wouldn’t have any hiccups, Williamson says.

Fortunately, there were no hiccups, and the instillation proceeded smoothly. However, Georgia’s Own still had a quandary. It had to teach its 85 newly merged employees how to use its systems.

Remote Team Training

Because of the size of the merger and the number of people involved, Georgia’s Own had crafted a weekslong training program that started in mid-March and ensured new employees received the in-person instruction they needed with enough time to practice on the system before serving a live member in early May.

We knew we wouldn’t have a trainer standing side-by-side with a group of participants. How do you provide hands-on learning and facilitation when you can’t physically be there?

The pandemic threw that schedule for a loop.

Travel bans around Albany stopped the credit union from bringing in out-of-town trainers through early April. Instead, trainers had to present remotely, through WebEx, and slightly rewrite the training itself to fit the new medium. Notably, they had to find a way to address questions without seeing a raised hand, especially for branch employees who had to learn new hardware.

How do you provide hands-on learning and facilitation when you can’t physically be there? asks Cindy Boyles, chief talent officer at Georgia’s Own.

Another hurdle involved the fact new employees couldn’t train from home; however, social distancing guidelines and travel limitations prevented Georgia’s Own from gathering employees into one central location. So, the credit union spent one day upgrading every system in the nine branches it inherited from DOCO and invited branch employees to train at their own workstations, providing PPE, sanitizer, and additional cleanings to ease troubled minds. Branch lobbies were closed to walk-in traffic at this time, and the training did not impact member service in the drive-thrus.

It would have been much more difficult had members been walking up to the teller stations, Williamson says.

Ultimately, training started three weeks behind schedule under an accelerated timeline. The new video instruction was no longer self-paced although employees did have practice books that were and trainers held office hours for two-hour chunks on select days to address questions from new staff members.

Maybe we wouldn’t have done it like this under normal circumstances, but the important thing was our employees felt supported the whole way through it, says Boyles, the talent officer.

Lessons For The Future

On July 1, Georgia’s Own will officially merge in another credit union, with a conversion date circled for the end of that month. Based on their experience with the DOCO merger, both Williamson and Boyles have identified lessons to ease this process and future mergers as well.

Cindy Boyles, Chief Talent Officer, Georgia’s Own Credit Union

For Williamson, he points to the benefit of video conferencing in early phases of data migration. Rather than sitting side by side with employees from the acquired credit union, validating member data across the two systems, Georgia’s Own set up remote calls that saved time as well as money while ensuring the integrity of the project remained solid. And although there are good reasons to build relationships in person, video is an effective and efficient solution when that’s not possible.

Ultimately, however, relationships are key. In preparing for the merger with DOCO, leaders from Georgia’s Own spent the last several months of 2019 driving between Albany and Atlanta, having conversations, building relationships, and easing concerns. A merger can be emotionally challenging for employees of an acquired institution, being face-to-face with new employees makes the process easier.

Such was the case with the DOCO merger, Boyles says. Georgia’s Own had laid the groundwork for building relationships in late 2019. When the pandemic forced employees to work remotely intensifying an already-challenging situation the pre-existing relationships helped reduce tensions.

This was a challenging time, but we were in a good spot, Boyles says. Everything changed quickly, but we had already established strong relationships between the teams, and we were able to build on top of that.

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LOANS,MORTGAGES,AUTO LENDING,SHARES,INVESTMENTS,EARNINGS,MEMBER RELATIONSHIPS

HUMAN CAPITAL

The economy continued the longest economic expansionary period in U.S. history. Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.1%, the 23rd consecutive quarter of positive growth.

Unemployment remained at historic lows through the calendar year, and the 3.5% rate recorded in December 2019 was the lowest year-end unemployment rate since 1968. According to data from the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment in the market becamemore optimistic toward the end of the year, rebounding from a third quarter that was marred by trade woes and recession fears.

Key Points

• At year-end 2019, the 5,349 operational credit unions in the nation held $1.6 trillion in assets. Total membership was 121.8 million, a 3.6% year-over-year increase.
• Total loans at credit unions across the United States surpassed $1.1 trillion in the fourth quarter, increasing 6.1% annually. Total loan growth has slowed 2.1 percentage points in the past 12 months. Share growth accelerated 3.0 percentage points annually to 8.2% as of Dec. 31.
• Credit unions branches totaled 21,225 nationwide as of the fourth quarter, 113 more than year-end 2018.
• Average ROA increased 1 basis point year-over-year to 0.93% as of Dec. 31, 2019.
• In the past year, the industry reported 135 mergers and 3 purchases, acquisitions, or liquidations.

U.S. UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

DATA AS OF 12.31.19

Callahan & Associates | CreditUnions.com

The December unemployment rate in the United States was 3.5%. That’s the lowest year-end rate since 1968.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

CREDIT UNION INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 12.31.19

Callahan & Associates | CreditUnions.com

Assets, shares, investments and capital all grew at a faster rate in 2019 than they did last year.

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AND S&P 500 AVERAGE

DATA AS OF 12.31.19

Callahan & Associates | CreditUnions.com

The S&P grew at the fastest clip since 2013 while the Dow had its fourth-best annual performance since 2000./p>

Source: Freddie Mac

The Bottom Line

At year-end, credit unions continue to benefit from expansionary macroeconomic trends with deposits up 8.2%, loans up 6.1%, and membership up 3.6% in the past 12 months. Despite a slow first quarter, the industry reported strong growth across core financialsin the past 12 months; optimistic members continue to grow and diversify their financial relationships with credit unions.

This article appeared originally in Credit Union Strategy & Performance.

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