Death Panel for America’s Smallest Credit Unions?
There are 1,029 credit unions with less than 500 members.
Only 15 of the 500 smallest credit unions have websites.
There are 78 credit unions with less than 100 members.
There are 15 credit unions with only one member.
If you rank the smallest 100 credit unions by number of members, they serve a combined membership of 6,787.
The 100 smallest credit unions by assets have only $9.54 million combined, and serve 16,485 members. There are 1,099 credit unions who each serve at least that many members.
228 credit unions have less than $100,000 in assets. 40 have less than $10,000.
There are 640 credit unions with less than $1 million in assets, for a combined total of $304 million.
Conversely, the 596 largest credit unions each have over $300 million in assets.
This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.
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[...] • Death panel for America’s smallest credit unions? [...]
There are cu’s with less than $1 million that provide valuable services to their members. Many are volunteer run, have allmost no overhead costs, and can make small loans at really great rates.
I have one in mind that did a great job for the members. OK, so it is now closd due to their sponsor closing. So what! The members did not want anything but small loans for a short time at a great rate. The c u did this very well and the members loved it. When it closed there was enough capital left over to pay a special dividend . There was no cost to NCUSIF. There are enough cu’s of all asset sizes that are not viable.
A viable c u is one that is meeting the needs of the members and is maintaining required rerserves. I suggest we applaud all credit unions who are doing this.