An article from Bankrate.com extolls the benefits of credit union shared branching. 

To overcome their access limitations, more than 5,600 credit unions participate in the CO-OP Financial Services network, allowing members from participating branches to make deposits, withdrawals and other transactions often at no or minimal costs,” the article reads. 

The article notes that CO-OP boasts 5,805 retail locations as of March 31. 

The shared branching concept also differentiates credit union competitively points out, Kathy Snider, Ph.D., CO-OP Financial Services senior vice president of debit, ATM and shared branch services, told Bankrate. “I can’t see the banks partnering to say, ‘Hey, I’ll tell you what. You can use our branches, and I can use yours.’ So, shared branching is an extremely unique value proposition that gives credit unions scalability and access that individually they just can’t obtain,” Snider says.