WASHINGTON-Credit unions added an estimated 300,000 members in December and about one million members in the fourth quarter, the best growth in more than a decade, as recruitment efforts surrounding Bank Transfer Day bore fruit, according to CUNA.
The fourth-quarter growth means that credit unions added about 1.9-million new members in 2011, more than three times the 600,000 added in 2010. The 1.9-million new members equates to a growth rate of 2% for 2011, among the highest in more than a decade, and makes a total of 94.5-million credit union members nationwide at year-end.
The rapid membership growth came just before and after the September 29 advent of Bank Transfer Day, which took place Nov. 5, 2011, prompted by the ill-fated move by Bank of America and a couple of other big banks to charge a monthly fee for use of their debit cards, which was followed by weeks of credit union promotions to capture the hordes of disgruntled bank customers who were further fueled by extensive press reports.
The flight of the bank customers has yet to pay off in big swings in deposits or shares but promises to do so in months and years to come, according to Bill Hampel, chief economist for CUNA. "I think we will see a long tail to this."
Credit union lending rose by 0.7% for the final three months of the year and by just 1% for the year, up from negative 1.2% in 2010. Deposits grew by 1.1% for the last quarter and by 5.3% for the year, up from 4.5% in 2010, according to CUNA.
The new membership numbers are derived by the addition of members joining individual credit unions and the subtraction of members being extinguished or credit unions purging inactive members from their rolls.
