What are thriving smaller credit unions doing differently? The Filene Research Institute spent six months answering that question with the belief that smaller credit unions can provide lessons that resonate throughout the movement.
The research, presented in a recent Filene and CUNA Mutual Group webinar, found that the small credit union puzzle includes five categories: market, identity, strategy, the balance sheet, and shareholders.
The study suggests that credit union leaders trying to solve the puzzle:
Filene provides a strategic playbook for the five areas:
Filene Senior Director of Research Taylor C. Nelms says thriving smaller credit unions leverage an understanding of their community, defining member compatibility as “the fit between members’ needs and expectations and the credit union’s offerings and operational model.”
Filene found that thriving small credit unions:
Filene found that thriving smaller credit unions:
Carma Parrish, CEO of $48 million asset NorthPark Community Credit Union in Indianapolis, says NorthPark’s recent bold strategic move—becoming a virtual credit union—reallocated resources to focus on income-generating actions. Other ways in which thriving small credit unions solve the strategic puzzle include:
Thriving smaller credit unions that strengthened their balance sheets between 2005 and 2021:
Thriving credit unions that have solved the stakeholder portion of the puzzle: