"This is a fundamental shift that seems to be saying that credit unions are having to buy their deposits more and more," he said.

Dollar said he's noticed a trend of credit unions creating "wow factors" in their checking accounts, because they have a better return than CDs.

"Both are necessary, but credit unions have proven better at marketing CDs than checking accounts. There is a lot of emphasis on ways to improve that balance," he said.

Reward checking programs are gaining in popularity as a way to attract the high-dividend shopping CD crowd, as well as those who are less fortunate. And, checking accounts are gateways to additional business like lending products.

"The CD will always be the primary way of bringing in new deposits in a larger dollar amount; however, the checking account is the best earning account that most financial institutions offer," Dollar said.

"Likewise, the growth in the importance of fee income will keep financial institutions looking for additional ways to build checking accounts."

Dollar stopped short of saying checking would replace CDs on balance sheets. In his experience, checking account growth will be in addition to, not at the expense of, CDs.

Not likely at Clearstar Financial, though.

"Let somebody else offer a CD promotion. We're after the relationship and that's what you get with checking," Van Duzer said, "whereas with CDs, they're just rate shoppers."