Giving thanks for the lessons of 2025 and acting boldly in 2026

2025 exposed the fault lines across the credit union system. Loan pipelines that had sustained balance sheets slowed to their weakest levels in years. Delinquencies crept back into portfolios. Expense ratios swelled as personnel and technology costs outpaced revenue. And younger members, supposed to be the future of cooperative finance, showed declining relevance, with wallet share increasingly going to digital-first competitors.

These are not seasonal fluctuations. They are systemic warnings. If 2025 did anything, it clarified that small, cautious moves will not carry credit unions forward. Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude, but gratitude without decisive action is simply inertia. The industry doesn’t need sentiment. It needs courage.

For decades, credit unions relied on steady loan demand as the engine of growth. In 2025, that assumption broke down. The NCUA reported 3.3% year-over-year loan growth in Q1 2025, the slowest pace in more than a decade. Auto lending was flat, mortgage demand compressed under rate pressure, and indirect lending no longer provided a reliable cushion.

For many institutions, this meant pressure on the net interest margin (NIM) without the offset of diversified revenue streams. Balance sheets that leaned too heavily on loan pipelines revealed fragility.

Treat loan growth as a baseline, not a strategy. The portfolio must be diversified. Storefronts should not be static product catalogs. They should be revenue engines. When a member initiates a payroll deposit, the storefront should surface savings accelerators. When a member closes on a loan, present protection products or ancillary services that extend value. This is cross-sell and portfolio diversification built into the digital experience, not left to chance. Counting on loan pipelines in 2026 is the equivalent of funding growth with yesterday’s playbook.

Asset quality ratios, once a point of pride, are now showing signs of stress. Delinquency rose to 80 basis points in Q1 2025, according to NCUA data, up from the low levels of the past decade. At the same time, provisions for loan losses grew materially, compressing return on assets (ROA) across many mid-sized credit unions.

This is not yet a crisis, but it is a warning. Higher auto insurance premiums, housing costs, and inflationary pressures strain household budgets. Credit unions that assume delinquency will remain a rounding error in 2026 are setting themselves up for heavier allowances and rising charge-offs.

Shift from risk response to risk anticipation. Institutions already have the data—transactional trends, utilization rates, missed micro-payments. What’s missing is the discipline to act on those signals before delinquency surfaces on a quarterly report. Digital engagement flows can be designed to trigger when risk indicators appear. For example, surfacing payment plan options when a member misses an early-cycle payment, or presenting balance transfer offers when utilization spikes. Automated overdraft protection offers when balances dip low, reminders of available HELOC balances with declining variable interest rates; these are services that help protect both the member and the balance sheet. Ignoring early credit signals today is underwriting tomorrow’s charge-offs

Non-interest expenses surged in 2025. By mid-year, NCUA reported 6.8% year-over-year increases, driven largely by personnel and technology outlays. Many credit unions now operate with efficiency ratios north of 70%, with some mid-sized institutions breaching 80%. In an environment where net worth ratios remain healthy—16.1% in Q2 2025—the real story isn’t safety. It’s sustainability.

The era when inefficiency could be masked by growth is over. Every duplicated system, every manual process, every delay in digital onboarding now carries both a financial and reputational cost.

Efficiency must be designed into the member experience. Activation flows should bring account funding, direct deposit setup, debit card activation, and e-statement enrollment into a single digital journey, rather than scattering them across emails, branches, and call centers. Engagement triggers should run automatically when members stall, replacing the manual list pulls and follow-ups that drain staff time and resources. Efficiency in 2026 is not about trimming fat; it’s about creating capacity to scale while improving member trust. Institutions that fail to embed efficiency into the member journey won’t scale. They’ll consolidate.

Membership grew by 2.9 million in the year ending Q1 2025, but the top-line number hides an uncomfortable truth. Credit unions under $10 million in assets saw 7.8% membership declines year-over-year, exposing structural challenges in smaller institutions. More troubling: surveys show less than 55% of millennials consider their credit union their primary financial institution. Gen Z fares worse—many don’t even realize they are eligible for membership.

This is more than a marketing problem. It’s a primacy problem. Without becoming the hub for deposits, transactions, and everyday financial behaviors, credit unions will remain secondary providers in younger members’ lives. And secondary status is one step away from irrelevance.

Relevance must be designed, not assumed. Activation flows should surface contextually relevant actions for different segments—helping students set up digital bill pay, nudging gig workers to route their income, or prompting small-business owners to adopt mobile deposit and treasury features. These steps need to be embedded in the digital experience, not left for members to discover on their own. For younger cohorts, trust will not be earned by tenure or heritage. It will be earned through utility by demonstrating daily value on the platforms where they already reside.

Design digital journeys that guide members through funding, direct deposit, card activation, and e-statement enrollment in one flow. With Swaystack, activation isn’t scattered—it’s orchestrated.

Leverage member signals—like missed payments or rising utilization—to trigger interventions inside digital banking. Swaystack surfaces restructuring, transfers, or support prompts before delinquency grows.

Manual lists and disconnected follow-ups waste staff time and erode trust. Swaystack automates onboarding and engagement in a single system, making efficiency visible to members.

Younger members measure loyalty by utility, not tenure. Swaystack embeds relevant actions into digital flows—gig deposits, expense sharing, early pay—building trust through daily use.

It’s easy to pause in November and give thanks for the clarity 2025 provided. But gratitude is not a strategy. 2025 taught us that loan growth can falter, credit risk can re-emerge, inefficiency can suffocate margins, and younger members can disengage.

The real question for 2026 is whether credit unions will act. Will we treat storefronts as engines of growth, not brochures? Will we harness data to anticipate risk, not just report on it? Will we make efficiency a member promise, not a balance sheet statistic? Will we design relevance for younger members, or continue assuming legacy equals loyalty?

Being thankful for clarity is easy. Acting with courage is hard. The only way to honor 2025 is to turn its lessons into execution. 2026 demands discipline and the willingness to abandon assumptions that no longer serve the balance sheet.

Ready to make sure your new members stay members for life? At Swaystack, we’ve taken these key lessons to heart and developed a fresh approach to 60-day new member and indirect member onboarding and activation. The time is now to drive increased account activity and boost your credit union’s revenue. Discover the difference gamified onboarding can make. Let’s talk!