The World Council of Credit Unions has released its newest Statistical Report, which provides membership and financial data as of December 2017 from credit unions and other financial cooperatives worldwide. This year's report includes information from 89,026 credit unions serving over 260 million members in 117 countries.
The most notable global changes from the end of 2013 to 2017, can be seen with 12 million new members in the US, 11 million each in Latin America and Africa, 7 million in Asia and one million in Europe.
"This year we can celebrate as a global community. We have realized our vision of reaching 250 million members by the year 2020," said Brian Branch, World Council president and CEO. "We see that membership growth continues to reflect the important role that credit unions have in providing economic empowerment to people worldwide.”
“The three primary challenges we hear from credit unions everywhere are advocacy, disruptive technology and membership growth. For 2019, we will launch the logical next step and take on the second global challenge, which is disruptive technology. We are gearing our efforts toward digitization, including access to core services by online and mobile channels, automation of internal processes and connection to local payments and electronic ecosystems. If we want to continue growing and competing in tomorrow’s disruptive markets, we take on this challenge, make it our own and market the advantage to serve the under-served.”
World Council reports data based on country responses to its annual survey and does not make estimates for non-reporting countries. The Statistical Report provides the most comprehensive data on the global credit union movement available and is cited widely by governments, international institutions and analysts as an expert resource.
Download the 2017 Statistical Report here.
