CUNA: Percentage of Women Serving as CU CEOs Declines Slightly

Although the percentage of women serving as credit union CEOs declined slightly, the percentage of overall credit union assets managed by women has been slowly increasing over the last five years, according to a new CUNA report.

The national trade group estimated in 2018 that 51.8% of all credit union CEOs were women, but by 2022 that percentage fell to 51.2%.

“The miniscule decrease is predominately caused by consolidation within the credit union industry that generally sees small institutions (where the vast majority of CEOs are women) merge into larger institutions,” the “Women in Credit Union Leadership” report showed. “The percentage of overall credit union assets at credit unions managed by women has been slowly increasing over time. CUNA estimates that 29.1% of all credit union assets are managed by women CEOs in 2022, an increase from 24.9% in 2018.”

The report also found a CEO of a credit union is over five times more likely to be a woman than a CEO of a bank is, even after accounting for differences in asset size.

A majority (51.2%) of credit union CEOs are women, which is nearly 14 times the rate at publicly traded banks (3.7%). This ratio of women CEOs matches research by S&P Global from 2021, which found just 10 out of 347 CEOs at publicly traded U.S. banks were led by women, according to the report.

Women are significantly more likely to lead smaller credit unions. More than 70% of the 1,500 credit unions with less than $20 million in assets are managed by women. While 19.6% of credit unions with more than $1 billion in assets were led by women in 2022 – up from 15% in 2018 – four of the top 10 largest financial cooperatives are managed by women CEOs. They include Mary McDuffie of the $168 billion Navy Federal Credit Union in Vienna, Va., Leigh Brady of the $49.6 billion State Employees’ Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C., Beverly Anderson of the $29.1 billion Boeing Employees Credit Union in Tukwila, Wash., and Donna Bland of the $20.4 billion Golden 1 Credit Union in Sacramento, Calif.

Among credit unions that manage $20 million to $50 million in assets, 62.8% were led by women in 2022 compared to 59.9% in 2018; among the $50 million to $100 million asset group, 51.9% in 2022, 45.2% in 2018; $100 million to $250 million, 36% in 2022, 31.8% in 2018; $250 million to $500 million, 28.4% in 2022, 25.9% in 2018, and $500 million to $1 billion, 23.6% in 2022, 16.3% in 2018.

The CUNA report also reviewed female leadership among credit union and bank boards.

Representation of women on the boards of depository financial institutions is more common at credit unions than banks. In CUNA’s sample of banks, 23.3% of board members were women in 2022, compared to 36.5% of credit union board members.

However, a large increase in gender representation has been seen on bank boards over the last few years, which was potentially spurred by state laws. CUNA’s sample of banks saw a jump from 15.5% of board seats held by women in 2018 to 23.3% in 2022, the report said.

CUNA also found that boards tend to be more diverse at the largest credit unions compared to some of the midsized institutions.

“Only credit unions with under $100 million in total assets see a larger proportion of women board members when comparing to credit unions with over $1 billion in total assets,” the report said. “However, differences by institution size are less pronounced on the boards of credit unions, with every observed asset size having more than 30.0% of board members as women by 2022.”

READ MORE: Women in Credit Union Leadership report.