Should We Remain Independent?
For credit union CEOs and boards: a structured test of whether remaining independent is still the best way to serve your members.
Glenn Christensen · CEO Advisory Group · October 2026 · 29 pages
Three findings
- 1
Earnings set the speed limit on growth.
To keep pace with the industry while holding a 10% net worth ratio, a credit union needs to earn about 0.75% on its assets every year, while its own costs rise about 4% a year. Over the last decade, 57% of the credit unions now under $100 million grew more slowly than consumer prices. Source: NCUA call reports; CEO Advisory Group analysis.
- 2
Scale shows up in what members earn and what staff are paid.
In 2025, credit unions over $5 billion paid members an average of 2.11% on deposits, against 1.15% at those under $100 million, because they spent 95 cents less per $100 of assets to operate. The gap in pay and benefits per employee between the smallest and largest credit unions widened from about $26,500 in 2015 to $51,400 in 2025. Source: NCUA call reports; CEO Advisory Group analysis.
- 3
Independence can be the right answer, when the credit union is distinctive.
Ironworkers USA FCU grew from $9 million to $143 million between 2010 and 2025 by serving ironworkers across the country, and WCLA Credit Union, a lender to contract loggers, was ranked the top-performing US credit union for 2024. What they share is not size but a distinctive purpose, earnings that fund their growth, and exceptional leadership. Source: NCUA call reports; S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Remaining independent is a decision, not a default. A credit union that stays independent is choosing to fund its own technology, find its own successor, grow its own membership and build its own capital for the next ten years. Most boards have never formally asked whether that is still the best way to serve their members, and strong capital makes the question easy to put off. This guide gives CEOs and boards a structured, honest way to ask it, and to reach an answer they can defend to members, staff and regulators.
What does the full paper add?
- The board's test: 21 questions in four parts, with a worksheet and the evidence to ask management for.
- Five- and ten-year tables showing how your growth and earnings move your net worth ratio.
- Where earnings come from at each asset size, and who pays for them.
- The full range of choices, from staying independent alone or with partners to a merger of equals, and when each fits.
- What typically carries forward in a well-structured merger: the name, branches, staff, board seats and members' capital.
- The CEO's own position, and a two-hour agenda for the board session.
- When independence is the right answer, and what to do next if it is.
29 pages, drawing on NCUA call report data through 2025, anonymized client cases, and profiles of Ironworkers USA FCU and WCLA Credit Union.