Worldwide CU growth: Nearly 57K CUs now serve 208M members

By the end of 2013, nearly 57,000 credit unions served about 208 million members across 103 different countries worldwide, according to numbers released by the World Council of Credit Unions this week in its 2013 Statistical Report

The report tracks membership and financial data for credit unions and financial cooperatives throughout the world.

The largest change from 2012 was the jump in membership growth, which climbed by more than 7 million members. The regions that posted the strongest growth in membership were Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Worldwide assets in 2013 came in at $1.7 trillion, according to the report, with savings topping $1.4 trillion, loans $1.1 trillion and reserves $171 billion.

“Large, small, emerging and mature systems, regardless of their differences, all reported the same top challenges: increased regulatory burden, payments innovation, young adult membership growth and small credit union sustainability,” wrote World Council President/CEO Brian Branch and Chair Grzegorz Bierecki in their annual report.

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