Published in: CUNA CFO Councils
In ALM First’s advisory work with clients, we’re seeing a new trend: strategic mergers among credit unions and community banks. It makes sense. Tighter margins, more regulation and growing competition from both banks and fintech companies make it harder for smaller institutions to thrive. Consider this: Fujitsu conducted a survey in 2016 and found that almost 20% of consumers would buy financial services from non-bank financial service providers like Amazon, Facebook or Google.
To remain competitive and satisfy members’ growing expectation for the same quality of service they receive from successful retailers, many medium- and larger-sized credit unions ($500+ million in assets) are pursuing mergers as part of their long-range strategic plans.