WOCCU and Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions headquarters in Madison, Wis.
The World Council of Credit Unions released a report Tuesday that found a healthy amount of growth of membership and assets for credit unions in 118 countries.
In WOCCU's 2021 Statistical Report, the organization revealed the nearly 88,000 credit unions around the world had more than $3.4 trillion in assets and 393 billion members – a staggering amount of growth, especially considering the global pandemic and other economic challenges.
"Despite the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to impact credit unions across the globe in 2021, they still managed to increase membership by 5% and grow assets by 9%," Elissa McCarter LaBorde, WOCCU's president/CEO, said. "For WOCCU to ensure that type of growth continues, and credit unions are able to reach even more underserved populations, we need to gather more specific data from national credit union associations than ever before. While some data sets in this report are more complete than others, this is just the first step in our plan to offer a continuously clearer picture of the challenges and opportunities credit unions face in each region of the world."
According to the Statistical Report, credit unions in North America held a slight edge over credit unions in Asia with the number of members: 141.6 million members and 141.1 million members, respectively.
Graphic from WOCCU's 2021 Statistical Report. The report also found "Africa and Latin America saw the most substantial growth in terms of membership and assets. Africa saw a 42% spike in assets – the largest worldwide. Latin America witnessed the biggest growth in membership at 16%." While Europe was the only region to see asset decline, Australia and New Zealand saw a decline in membership.
Survey results included in the Statistical Report revealed the following concerns about credit union risk:
- 60% of respondent credit union associations identified macroeconomic uncertainties as a top risk, with Australia and many associations in Africa, Europe and Asia listing it as a major concern.
- 53% identified technology as another top risk concern, led by Africa (100%), Latin America (67%) and Asia 57%.
While credit unions in the United States enjoy a tax-exempt status, WOCCU's report found that there is a "nearly even split" of the number of countries that exempt credit unions from taxes and those countries that do not.
"Every customer-owned bank (credit union) in Australia pays taxes, along with 80% of credit unions in Asia and 73% in Europe. Those numbers fall precipitously in the western hemisphere, with just 17% of respondent credit union associations in Latin America reporting that their credit unions pay taxes – and none in the Caribbean countries with associations that responded to our survey," a statement from WOCCU read.
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Michael Ogden
Editor-in-Chief at CU Times. To connect, email at [email protected]. As Editor-in-Chief of CU Times since 2016, Michael Ogden has led the editorial team in all aspects of content strategy and execution, including the creation of the publication’s exclusive and proprietary research database of the credit union industry’s economic landscape. Under Michael’s leadership, CU Times has successfully shifted to an all-digital editorial product with new focuses on the payments, fraud, lending and regulatory beats. Most recently, he introduced a data-focused editorial product for subscribers that breaks down credit union issues into hard data, allowing for a deeper and more factual narrative for readers. In 2024, he launched the "Shared Accounts With CU Times" podcast, which offers a fresh, inside-the-newsroom perspective through interviews with leaders from the credit union industry and the regulatory world. He dives into pressing credit union issues, while revealing the personalities working behind-the-scenes to push the credit union world forward. His background includes years as a radio and TV anchor/reporter and a public relations and digital/social media manager, where he covered the food and music industries, as well as cooperatives and credit unions. Over the years, he has launched numerous exclusive video and podcast series, including a successful series of interactive backstage interviews with musicians at music festivals, showcasing his social media and live streaming production skills.
