The Bank of England recently published its Credit Union quarterly review. Some interesting statistics emerged from the data including a sizeable increase in memberships, now standing at 1.93 million in the UK. The value of loans increased 19% to £785m and assets under management remain at the previous quarter’s level of £4.4 billion.
Whilst the membership growth is generally good news, the volume of younger members and depositors has dropped for the ninth consecutive quarter.
With over seven million 16 to 25 year-olds across the UK, Credit Unions have a tremendous opportunity to sign up the next generation and support them with their money management and ongoing finances.
Credit Unions must broaden their product offerings and work harder to attract younger members. Some forward thinking Credit Unions are already embracing change by offering debit cards to attract the younger market which will in turn bolster their balance sheets, and potentially secure a stronger lifelong membership base.
But they need to differentiate themselves from banks, building societies and the new digital challengers.
What can Credit Unions do?
- More focus on customer experience and continue to provide better products that have more appeal to younger generations.
- Drive down costs and embrace technology automation to shake off the long-held view that they lack adequate capital to acquire new technology.
- Embrace digital finance tools that encourage better customer engagement.
- Simplify the customer engagement journey, remove barriers, and be more attractive to the 16 to 25 year-old market.
- Communicate the value of the common bond and how building a community of members can benefit everyone.
As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, people of all ages will inevitably seek ways to obtain more affordable credit. Credit Unions will play an increasingly important role in the UK’s lending ecosystem, continuing to serve communities and employers by providing ethical and responsible products and services. To do this they must ensure that their mantra of people helping people reaches across the age divide and that they have the products, services, and infrastructure to attract and retain new members.
Round Turn Partners
Delivering successful outcomes for your business is our mission.
Frustrated with our experience of Strategy consultant’s inability to deliver what’s required, we’ve made it our mission to turn around how people think about and deliver effective change in rapidly evolving sectors.
We focus on delivering successful outcomes for our customers, not frameworks, approaches and roadmaps that tell you what you already know.
Our business has three main areas of focus:
- Driving better outcomes for technology SMEs and service companies.
- Using market-leading technology to solve critical business challenges.
- Providing project leadership and expertise to deliver change.
We wanted to build something different, not the usual rinse and repeat consulting offerings we’ve experienced over the last 30+ years of delivering large-scale change.
Bringing business acumen to solve client problems, we’ve built our reputation on past successes in delivering high-profile global projects.
Get in touch for a free, no strings attached discussion on how Round Turn Partners could help deliver better outcomes for your business.
