SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-The new report from Cornerstone Advisors has also discovered a great divide in CUs when it comes to IT. Among the findings:
* Credit unions with $2 billion in assets and larger benefit from their larger size ($112 million in assets managed per IT FTE vs. $60 million in assets managed per IT FTE), but on a headcount basis they are less efficient.
* Larger institutions have added web developers, business analysts, and project managers to accommodate development and integration efforts at a rate faster than the rest of IT and faster than the growth of the institution as a whole, resulting in an overall decline in IT productivity for CUs with $1 billion in assets and greater. In other words, the larger institutions are disproportionately arming themselves internally to compete and differentiate using IT.
* Core systems spending as a percentage of assets tends to decline as credit unions grow. This is a result of maintenance fees and depreciation being spread across a larger asset base (for in-house service delivery) and better pricing tiers in outsourcing arrangements as volumes increase. The benefits of scale on core spending accelerate with credit union size.
