Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

Studies have shown that many  corporate directors do not have a clear understanding of the dynamics of their own industry. This isn't credit union specific, but rather is a phenomenon across all corporate boards.

I thought I'd spend a little bit of time today going over some numbers. I discuss these when I speak to credit union management teams and boards to give them a clear picture of what our industry looks like.

I often get the following question. Is our industry growing or shrinking. The answer is clearly "yes." I'm not being coy. The answer depends on how you look at things.

There are fewer credit unions. But we serve more members with more employees. Even with the drop in the total number of credit unions, our total amount of assets has grown tremendously. 

That graph, however, shows you the forest. What do the trees look like?

• The average credit union has roughly $200 million in assets.  But averages can be misleading as large or small numbers can skew the average.
• The median size of a credit union is $27.7 million in assets. That means 50 percent of credit unions are larger than that size, and the same number are smaller.
• Ten percent (595) of credit unions are larger than $395 million in assets. 
• Twenty-five percent of credit unions (1,489) are smaller than $7.8 million in assets. 

Now, all of these numbers don't tell the whole story. They won't make a difference to what you're doing today. But I'm a full believer in the idea that if you understand the whole picture a bit more, you'll make better decisions. 

Have a great Thursday, everyone!