NEW YORK What does the future hold for credit unions? If the overflow attendance at one session during CUNA’s America’s Credit Union Conference here is any indication, plenty of people would like to know.
But the session was indicative that many credit unions do not have a plan for meeting the needs of the upcoming generations of members. When Doug Benzine, VP-business and consumer publishing with CUNA, and leader of the session, asked for show of hands for how many credit unions were interested in reaching Gen Y, nearly all hands were raised. When Benzine asked how many had a plan for targeting that demographic, only a few hands remained raised. Similarly, when Benzine asked which credit unions saw value in reaching out to the underbanked or unbanked, nearly every hand went out. But when asked who had a plan for expanding into those markets, he got similar results.
“Transformative developments during the past 30 years, spurred by corporate and public policies and actions, have disrupted middle class households,” said Benzine. “The future composition of the jobs market will splinter the middle class into multiple levels of income and financial security. A lot of the automatic membership growth in the manufacturing segment has disappeared and we are not sure if it is coming back.”
