The NCUA identified three areas where credit unions are falling short when it comes to diversity, based on the 2023 responses:

Supplier diversity: Only 14% had a written supplier diversity policy that provided opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses to bid on contracts, 10% reported outreach efforts to inform diverse suppliers of contracting opportunities and how to do business with the credit union, and just 6% had an established policy to solicit bids from a certain number or percentage of diverse businesses.
Diversity and inclusion practices transparency: Only 19% publicly shared their diversity and inclusion strategic plan, 14% made their policy on their commitment to supplier diversity public, and 15% announced opportunities that promoted diversity and inclusion in their contracting opportunities.
Developing and implementing a diversity, equity and inclusion strategic plan that is sustainable and measurable: 75% include diversity and inclusion considerations in their strategic plan for recruiting, hiring, retention and/or promotion of their workforce, while 44% include diversity and inclusion considerations in their strategic plan in contracting with vendors.

A breakdown of submitting credit unions by gender and race/ethnicity, among those that provided this information, showed that while women are well-represented among employees and management at all sizes of reporting credit unions, they are less represented in board member positions and represented only 42% of board members at federally insured credit unions with greater than 500 employees, a three-percentage point drop from 2022. What’s more, credit unions that shared workforce data reported that 66% of all employees and 73% of management employees are white.

“By publicly sharing the aggregated results of the voluntary credit union diversity self-assessment, we embrace a shared commitment to greater inclusion within the credit union system. We also better ensure that the system fulfills its statutory mission of meeting the credit and savings needs of members, especially those of modest means,” NCUA Chairman Todd M. Harper said. “These results show positive change in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion across the credit union system, and I encourage all credit unions to review the results to evaluate and benchmark their own inclusion efforts against others.”

Instant Insights /

Over 7% of Credit Unions Complete NCUA’s 2023 Diversity Self-Assessment

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