Must-Reads

Younger members remain elusive for most credit unions. As they look at an aging member base, they often struggle with how to attract younger members. Amongst the noise for how younger members engage with financial institutions, the evolution of an old product holds more insight than you may believe.

While the current economic climate is presenting challenges for everyone, they can be more pronounced for younger members. 63% of people aged 18-29 don’t have three months of emergency savings (vs 45% for ages 45-59). 55% of people aged 18-29 would struggle to handle an unexpected $400 expense (vs 34% for ages 45-59). As a result, access to cash for short-term financial needs is a real need for many younger members.

The bottom line: they’re looking for a quick buffer for short-term emergencies, which presents an opportunity for the institutions set up to help them quickly. But does a credit union offer them the best path forward? Let’s consider two options for a Gen Z member looking to borrow $400.

Gen Z credit union members increasingly find themselves in a common situation. They are a few years into the workforce, earning entry-level incomes that will one day increase with their experience and skills, but for now leave them on a tight budget.

They are managing their expenses, which may include a student debt payment. And while they are 2-3x more likely than older generations to want an auto loan or mortgage loan in the next five years, they don’t really have a credit score that measures up yet.

The bottom line: they’re looking to build credit, which presents an opportunity for the institutions set up to help them. But does a credit union offer them the best path forward? Let’s consider two options for this Gen Z member.

The financial health of younger consumers is a difficult thing to nail down. There’s so much information out there, often offered without context. That’s why one of the best ways to assess is to look at a consistent data source and see changes over time.

This month, the annual Federal Household Survey results were released, and three key questions highlight things we can’t ignore about younger consumers. If you look at the headline number, it’s virtually unchanged over the last four years: 27% of people are just getting by or find it difficult to get by. But the responses by generation tell a different story.

One in three millennials and Gen Z are either just getting by or struggling to get by. In fact, Gen Z responses were twice as high as those from baby boomers. For Gen Z consumers, things haven’t stayed the same; they’ve been steadily getting worse for the last few years.

The credit union industry is in a constant state of evolution and change, as the members and communities they serve do the same.

From 2020 to 2025, credit unions have met numerous challenges and shifts in the way they serve members. Around this time of year, the annual data on the industry sometimes causes concern, but if you look at the underlying data, there is a lot to celebrate in terms of how the industry is meeting the challenges of the day.

When looking at the credit union industry data in 2025 vs. 2020, the headline often jumps to the number of credit unions. In the industry data, 5,207 credit unions existed in 2020 and 4,374 credit unions in 2025. This is often used as the counterpoint to overall trends in the credit union industry’s growth in total assets and members. Could both points be true?

When most people think of alternative finance providers, they likely think about payday loans and other historically predatory lenders. There are other forms of phantom debt today, notably online alternative finance providers. These apps are very popular on app stores, providing advances instead of loans and eschewing the regulations and reporting requirements of the latter. It’s important to know what this could look like for a member.

We analyzed a credit union member’s usage of three alternative finance providers over a six-month period, and here’s what we learned.

The end of 2025 went by in a blur of headlines. It’s hard to remember what people were focused on in any given week.

Whether we remember it or not, we ended the year with real uncertainty about the cost of living in 2026. And the fall government shutdown also created uncertainty as to what services people would have access to. Credit unions need to remember that while the headlines may move on, the real impacts for people have not.

Here’s a look at three cost-of-living subjects from the end of 2025, and where they stand in 2026.