Warning to Execs: Credit Union Members’ Children Aren’t Joining, Survey Shows

To remain viable, credit unions must encourage retention of family members across generations, according to a digital banking platform provider that has released a study of customer loyalty to financial institutions.

According to Chris Doner, founder and CEO of the Berkeley, Calif.-based Access Softek, the top line finding of the poll was that the vast majority - up to 90% - of credit union members are not encouraging their children to bank at their institutions.

If the issue is not addressed, a statement announcing the survey results said, generational wealth transfers could prove “devastating” for credit unions.

The survey, whose findings were announced on Wednesday, should spur new strategies for family retention among credit union executives and marketing officers, the statement said.

“Credit unions must begin treating the family as one financial unit and looking at family wallet share. Currently, there are little-to-no programs or incentives for families that bank together,” Doner said. “This is a huge opportunity that many institutions are missing out on.”

Doner said credit unions must play a role through education, incentives or products tailored to children and college students in emphasizing the unique benefits offered by membership in the financial institutions.

The poll, taken in July, expanded on another study released in May of this year.

The study found that some credit union members even discouraged their children from banking at the same institution.

“When asked if they would like their children to have an account at the same credit union as them, nearly 90% of respondents were either neutral or to some degree actively wanted separation from their children’s financial institution,” the release from Access Softek said.

In a result that the authors of the study called “shocking,” 38.2% of respondents stated that they did not want their children to have accounts at the same institution that they do.

In other findings, most respondents, 55%, said their children banked elsewhere because they had moved away. The poll also showed 42% of credit union members did not know where their adult children chose to bank. And 28% said they could not see a reason for their family members to join the same credit union.

Credit union executives, Doner said, need to know that by “keeping families in the credit union, they are keeping wealth within the institution for generations to come.”

The study, which polled 500 respondents, was conducted by Google Surveys.