Press
CUNA National Member Survey Provides Insight into Members’ Financial Needs
Contact: Mark Wolff (202) 508-6764, mwolff@cuna.coop
Amy Nigrelli (608) 231-4246, anigrelli@cuna.coop
MADISON, Wis. (September 21, 2011) — CUNA’s newly released 2011-2012 National Member Survey, a report designed to uncover the trends in member attitudes and use of financial services, reveals that there is still room for credit unions to steer members and potential members away from banks and grow their overall member base.
The National Member Survey summarizes the directions in member attitudes over the past couple years to help credit unions understand what their members want from their financial institutions. With the information provided by the Survey, credit unions can better understand their members and, in turn, provide better service, keep a competitive edge in the marketplace and stay abreast of impending member issues.
“Even today, there are plenty of positive trends for credit unions illustrated by the Survey,” says Jon Haller, director of corporate and market research at CUNA. “Credit unions’ loyalty score is still a full 37 percentage points above the banks’ score and the number of people who are extremely likely to say they’d recommend their credit union to others has increased.”
Furthermore, young adult memberships are on the rise, with members between 18 to 24 years of age constituting nine percent of credit unions’ total adult membership—up from six percent in 2006. Use of credit union checking accounts is also growing, suggesting that more people are choosing credit unions as their primary financial institution.
The Survey found that, in 2009, the gap between the credit union member loyalty score and that of members’ banks expanded significantly, with credit unions making significant gains. But, from 2009 to 2011, banks’ loyalty score nearly tripled the growth seen in credit unions, indicating that credit unions might have missed out on an opportunity to capitalize on the large-scale failure in the banking industry.
“The findings in CUNA’s National Member Survey can help credit unions better understand the member trends that will impact the credit union movement in the years to come,” adds Haller. “Credit unions need to understand their members in order to survive in today’s financial environment.”
For more information about CUNA’s 2011-2012 National Member Survey, visit CUNA’s Member Research Resources page.
# # #
About CUNA:
With its network of affiliated state credit union leagues, Credit Union National Association (CUNA) serves 90 percent of America’s 7,700 state and federally chartered credit unions, which are owned by nearly 92 million consumer members. Credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives providing affordable financial services to people from all walks of life. For more information about CUNA, visit www.cuna.org or the CUNAverse blog and follow @CUNAverse on Twitter. For more information about credit unions, visit www.aSmarterChoice.org and follow @asmarterchoice on Twitter.