Credit Unions Best Mid-Size Banks in Several Retail Delivery Benchmarks

A newly released study of best practices and technology trends in larger credit unions reveals that, in a side by side comparison, credit unions outperform mid-size banks in several key areas of retail delivery.

The Cornerstone Report: Benchmarks and Best Practices for Credit Unions 2006 is the published analysis of a survey of 62 credit unions with assets of at least $350 million. Study participants were queried on more than 250 measurements in 11 key areas, including retail banking, consumer and mortgage lending, business services, enterprise risk management and information technology.

A key finding of the study is that the median credit union spends nearly double that of mid-size banks on technology initiatives – .497% versus .268% of assets. (Mid-size banks are defined by The Cornerstone Report authors as those with between $1 billion and $30 billion in assets. Data for bank comparisons come from a similar study Cornerstone conducted with banks in 2005.) This spending difference is primarily explained by credit unions’ more aggressive electronic delivery investments and greater appetite for experimentation with new technology.