With the deepening market downturn in 2008, the aggregate account values of members’ investments dropped to $40.2 billion by year-end 2008, according to the "2009 Credit Union Retail Investment Services" study from Callahan & Associates.

The aggregate value of member investment accounts grew from $39.0 billion at year-end 2005 to $40.2 billion at year-end 2008, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the number of accounts grew from 1.17 million in 2007 to 1.27 million by year-end 2008, an increase of 8.9%, the survey showed. One driver behind the account growth was credit unions expanding their representative sales force.