By Christian Mullins
Last month on CUES Skybox, Shari Storm made a brief yet effective statement regarding the credit union industry’s obsession with total market share. In short, she opined that there is no surefire correlation between size and long-term success. It was a small part of a larger conversation, but it was a reminder that credit unions remain a small, yet significant, alternative when selecting a financial institution.
Credit unions, on average, offer more favorable savings and lending rates and lower and/or fewer fees. These results are widely available in news publications, as well as on the Internet, for anyone looking to maximize their banking dollar. But this knowledge hasn’t translated to results. For many Americans, location continues to be the deciding factor when selecting a financial institution, leaving credit unions an inconvenient choice in many markets.
Currently, America’s almost 8,000 credit unions claim about 90 million members. This represents just over 29 percent of the United States’ estimated population in 2008, assuming that every member is an individual (which they aren’t) and there are no duplicates (which there are). Credit union membership growth rates do exceed that of the nation’s population, but even with generous statistical massaging, national membership penetration will likely hover around 32 percent in 2020.
The reason for this is simple: At the end of 2008, bank branches outnumbered credit union branches almost 5:1. Potential and even current members cannot help but notice the potential benefit of having a banking option near home as well as work. While credit unions may retort that online and mobile banking deemphasize the need for brick and mortar, the proof is in the pudding; when everything else is similar, location, and the convenience that comes with it, is the differentiator. Sometimes this favors credit unions, but most of the time it does not. Someday, shared branching may level the brick-and-mortar playing field, but that will likely require a standardization of primary signage at every location, a rebranding effort that will meet with widespread resistance.
There is one positive that can be inferred from all of this--members who cannot list convenience as the reason for banking with you want to be there. They are your core members, the foundation from which you will build future growth, and their belief trumps location; they won’t jump to another financial institution as soon as it’s convenient to do so. There is still a corner of the financial institution industry that enjoys brand loyalty, and credit unions are fortunate to occupy much of it.
Christian Mullins is a strategic analyst for the credit union industry and author of the CU Potential Blog.
Also read "Competitive Differentiation: From 'as is' to 'Will Be'
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