“We are encouraged to see that the peak levels of increases in membership and deposits we saw in October, a result of heightened awareness about credit unions, have continued throughout November,” said Diana Dykstra, CCUL president/CEO.

More than 9 million members now belong to California credit unions, which old nearly $130 billion in assets, the league said.

Across the country, Maryland's largest credit union said it also is continuing to see “unprecedented member growth” from people moving from other institutions.

Also, current members of the $2.2 billion SECU, “are expanding their relationships with our credit union, opening new personal and business accounts and increasingly making SECU their primary financial institution,” said its president/CEO, Rod Staatz.

“With the holidays, we typically see account openings flatten in November and December,” Staatz said, “but with negative sentiment toward the big banks continuing and more people switching financial institutions as a result of events such as the recent Bank Transfer Day, we are experiencing a reversal of that trend this year.”

During the week after Bank Transfer Day, Linthicum-based SECU saw an increase of 62% in new checking accounts compared with the same weeks in 2009 and 2010 and 61% for new members compared with the 2010 week.

The following week, which included the Veteran's Day holiday, saw a 67% jump in checking account openings and 72% increase in members compared with the same weeks in 2009 and 2010, Staatz said.

He added that 34% of new checking accounts opened in November came from existing SECU members, “confirming that many members who may not have thought of SECU as their primary financial institution in the past are now beginning to do so.”