Did you know that total financial assets held by federally insured credit unions reached $1.34 trillion in the first quarter of 2017 – increasing by $97 billion year over year? Or that the value of credit union loans outstanding totaled $884.6 billion in Q1, an annual increase of 10.6 percent?
With 106 million members nationwide, the credit union market is vast and growing – with technologies and trends advancing on a daily basis.
These are just a few of the facts and insights presented in the inaugural issue of “PYMNTS Credit Union Tracker,” a new publication powered by CO-OP to keep credit unions up-to-date on our fast-evolving industry.
According to PYMNTS, the Tracker is dedicated to showcasing “the most significant developments reshaping the credit union market, with attention paid to the biggest partnerships and acquisitions in the industry, notable tech innovations and the shifting regulations that could drastically change how these institutions operate.”
All the Headlines in One Place
Each edition of the Tracker reports on important news and trends to give readers a comprehensive state-of-the-industry report. Within the inaugural edition, the Tracker highlights a breadth of market developments, including these top stories:
- Potential regulatory shifts, including one that could lift the stress-testing threshold for federally-backed credit unions from $10 billion to $50 billion in assets
- Partnerships between credit unions and FinTech firms that will yield new innovations in paperless transactions, mortgage lending, product comparison tools, mobile finance and more
- New industry alliances and developments, including CO-OP’s acquisition of TMG, machine learning initiative and partnership with Early Warning
Each issue also includes an in-depth feature article designed to help credit unions better understand complex issues and the opportunities and challenges they present.
This Month’s Feature: Regulation Versus Innovation
For the July issue, PYMNTS sat down with Carrie Hunt, executive vice president of the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU), to talk about the state of regulations in our industry today – and how they impact a credit union’s ability to compete with banks and innovate on behalf of their members.
In the article, Hunt praises credit unions for the many industry firsts these institutions have brought to market, including ATM networks, mobile check deposit apps and the concept of shared branching, to name a few. Her mission is to see credit union innovation continue.
Hunt points to the 2008 financial crisis as a pivotal time in our industry’s history. “There was so much regulatory noise coming out of Dodd-Frank, and all these other issues that . . . didn’t leave [credit unions] time to innovate,” she said. “We’re coming out of that now and need to continue that trend.”
In particular, she says the market “needs a break” from regulations imposed by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency created as a result of Dodd-Frank regulations with rules that hold credit unions to “the same regulations as traditional banks.”
“Credit unions need to be allowed to be credit unions,” Hunt said. “They need to . . . adapt to [the] technology and emerging trends that are out there.”
To read Hunt’s interview in its entirety and access all the news and commentary included in the Tracker’s July report, download the inaugural issue here.
The original article Introducing PYMNTS Credit Union Tracker – News and Insights That Will Make Your CU Smarter can be found on Insight Vault.
