Credit Union Members Who Signed Up for Online Banking Surged in 2020

More than 5.6 million members signed up for online banking with their credit unions in 2020, compared to four million members who enrolled for online banking in 2019, according to a CU Times analysis of the NCUA’s fourth quarter data.

That surge, a 39% increase of new web banking users, was expected after credit unions closed branch lobbies because of the pandemic and urged their members to sign up for online options to meet most of their financial needs.

Of the total 125,695,985 credit union members, 71,399,218 were using online banking at the end of 2020. In the fourth quarter of 2019, of the 121,028,894 members, 65,755,841 were utilizing online banking.

On average, about 4.6 million members have enrolled in online banking every year since 2015. The largest number of members who signed up for online banking over the last five years was in 2017 when more than 7.2 million members became new users of online banking.

Most of the gains in new web banking users were seen among most credit unions that manage $340 million to more than $10 billion in assets, while credit unions that manage $10 million to less than $500 million in assets saw declines in web users.

Among the 471 credit unions with $340 million to less than $1 billion in assets, the number of new web users increased from 10.8 million to 11.2 million, though these credit unions also saw membership drop from 20.6 million to 20.1 million, according to fourth quarter data for 2019 and 2020 from the NCUA.

For the 190 credit unions that manage assets of $1 billion to less than $2 billion, their web banking users declined from 10.7 million in 2019 to 10.2 million in 2020, while their total membership fell from 19.5 million to 17.9 million.

Among the 111 credit unions with $2 billion to less than $4 billion in assets, their web users increased from 10.3 million in 2019 to 11.2 million at the end of last year, while their total membership increased from 18.3 million to 19.8 million. For the 58 credit unions that manage assets from $4 billion to less than $10 billion in assets, the number of web users went up from 10.1 million in 2019 to 12 million in 2020, while their total membership jumped from 17.2 million to nearly 19 million.

Sixteen credit unions that have $10 billion in assets or more saw their web users skyrocket from 11.5 million to 15.5 million, NCUA fourth quarter data for the two years showed. What’s more, their total membership substantially grew from 11.5 million in 2019 to 15.5 million 2020.

For the 1,179 credit unions that manage less than $10 million in assets, they saw their web users plunge from 153,471 to 122,324 from 2019 to 2020, while membership fell from 993,835 to 847,360.

Among the 1,589 credit unions that manage assets of $10 million to less than $50 million, their web users fell from 2.3 million to 1.8 million from 2019 to 2020, while their membership number dropped from 4.9 million to 4.2 million.

Likewise, for the 703 credit unions in the $50 million to less than $100 million asset class, their web users declined from 2.5 million to 2.2 million, while their membership fell from 5.1 million to 4.5 million.