The average CU is bigger; much of the decline in CUs coming from small CUs

WASHINGTON – Credit unions are getting bigger. The average asset size of a CU last year was $54 million, up from $46.8 million in 2000, according to Callahan & Associates. At the top-end of the asset scale there has been a lot of growth. While there were 62 billion dollar CUs as of mid-year, there were just 23 five years ago. The number of CUs with $250 million in assets has jumped from 248 in 1997 to 435 today. The number of CUs with more than $20 million in assets has increased from 575 since 1997. The number of CUs in the industry has dropped from 21,457 in 1980 to just 10,031 as of June 30. According to Callahan’s, much of the decline has occurred among small CUs, those under $10 million in assets.