2010 Brand Rankings for Credit Unions

Bancography, a financial services consulting firm, released its 2010 rankings for its Bancography Brand Value Index (BBVI), a quantitative ranking of the brand strength of all US banks and credit unions. The firm developed the system so that it could assist financial institutions with evaluating the strength of their brands. The index calculates the value of an institution’s brand and ranks that institution comparatively among its peers.

In the large credit union asset tier, only six of 2009’s top 25 retained their top-25 status in 2010.  This shows a noticeable difference from 2009’s index, where 14 institutions repeated their top-25 performance and reflects the volatility in both the industry and the broader economy.  In the large credit union tier, only Chevron and JSC (TX) return to the top 10; while 2009’s top ranked Police and Fire (PA) placed 11th in 2010.  Six Texas-based credit unions, four Wisconsin-based institutions and three Pennsylvania organizations combine to occupy more than half of the top 25 slots.  Notably, these three states have also remained near immune to bank failures over the past three years.

Twelve institutions returned to the top 25 in the smaller asset tier ($100M – $1B) including Navy Army, White Sands, Complex Community (TX), Golden Plains (KS) and Red Crown (OK).  Notable newcomers to the list include Gwinnett Credit Union (GA), Mennonite Financial (PA), AmeriCU (NY), Idaho Central Credit Union and University First Credit Union (UT), with all but Gwinnett representing areas of the country that have survived the financial crisis relatively unscathed. Despite its sizable population base, not a single Florida-based credit union reached the top 25 in either tier, confirming the degree to which the recession has impacted that state’s financial institutions.

Do you want to know where your credit union ranks? Easy. Just contact Bancography. "We will supply at no cost any institution’s ranking if they contact us," promises Mathes.

"But to make the rankings relevant as to how well an institution is doing in any given market, they would need to know their competitors’ index," continues Mathes. "So we sell a product called ‘Market Snapshot’ that supplies all community bank and credit union rankings by DMA. The Snapshot also contains helpful observations and insights from that DMA."