Credit Unions in Britain: A Time for Change

As member-owned, not-for-profit financial institutions, credit unions are an important instrument of public policy, particularly in pushing forward measures to tackle financial and social exclusion. Historically, the credit union movement in Great Britain has been hampered by a number of factors, including a lack of leadership, a cohesive identity and regulatory impediments. Recent legislative review and change has provided credit unions with the opportunity to grow and extend the scale and scope of services they can offer to their members. However, policy-makers should be aware that funding initiatives to support credit union development might undermine their self-help cornerstone and weaken the future development of the movement.     

The use of performance information in cutback budgeting

Not having access to mainstream financial services, such as a bank account or a credit card, can lead to a variety of social and economic exclusions. In a number of countries, particularly Ireland, Spain, Canada and the UK, credit unions— member-owned financial co-operatives—play a significant role in reaching under-served and excluded communities, as well as providing ‘safe’ avenues for savings and credit. Yet many credit unions are facing financial and operational problems. This article looks at the experience of Welsh credit unions. The research has implications for policy development and government–credit union relations in Wales and further research on credit unions and financial inclusion.     

Credit Unions: A Theoretical and Empirical Overview

In 2009 there were over 49,330 credit unions across 98 countries with more than 184 million members and approximately $1,354 billion in assets. There is a great diversity within the credit union movement across these countries. This reflects the various economic, historic and cultural contexts within which credit unions operate. This paper traces the evolution of the credit union movement. It examines credit union objectives, and considers issues relating to efficiency, technology adoption, product diversification, merger, failure and demutualization. The regulatory environment within which credit unions operate is also explored under the themes of interest rate regulation, common bond requirements, taxation, deposit insurance and capital regulation. The overview also considers demutualization and the costs and benefits to credit unions of altering their organizational form.     

The growth of US credit unions

The growth of US credit unions during the 1990s is investigated empirically, using univariate and multivariate cross sectional and panel estimation techniques. Univariate tests of the law of proportionate effect suggest that in general large credit unions grew faster than their smaller counterparts. On average credit unions with above-average growth in one period tended to experience below-average growth in the next. Smaller credit unions tended to have more variable growth than large ones. While credit unions share a common co-operative philosophy, they differ in terms of age profile, scope for membership growth, charter type and financial structure and performance. In estimations of a multivariate growth model, most of these characteristics are found to have a significant influence on the size-growth relationship. While large state chartered credit unions grew faster than their smaller counterparts, the reverse was true for federally chartered credit unions. In general, if larger credit unions grew faster than smaller ones, they tended to do so for specific reasons: because their charters were less restrictive, because they were more efficient, or because they had a financial structure that was more conducive to growth. Therefore credit union growth was not ‘random', but highly systematic.     

Can mergers ensure the survival of credit unions in the third millennium?

The survival of small financial institutions in the third millennium depends on their competitiveness against large bank rivals. Accordingly, credit unions in Australia and the United States have attempted to increase efficiency through mergers. Our paper uses the data envelopment analysis methodology to evaluate the post-merger gains in technical and scale efficiency achieved by 31 Australian credit union mergers in 1993/1994 and 1994/1995, relative to non-merging credit unions. When compared with the only US study of credit union mergers [Journal of Banking & Finance 23 (1999) 367–386], our findings suggests that mergers are not associated with improvements in efficiency superior to those achieved by internal growth.     

RISK MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES EMPLOYED WITHIN THE U.S. CREDIT UNION INDUSTRY

This paper reports the findings of a national survey regarding the financial management practices of United States credit unions. The US credit union industry is clearly in a period of transition. The study indicates that the way in which credit unions approach financial management may have a decided impact on how successful the industry adjusts to deregulated marketplaces. The research highlights the importance of managed growth through selective product diversification, identification of profitable market niches, and the use of modern risk management techniques.     

Determinants of Transactional Internet Banking

The decision of credit unions in the United States to adopt transactional web-based services is consistent with profit-maximization behavior. Credit unions adopt transactional internet banking services when they provide a higher proportion of consumer loans and when there is increased competition from other financial institutions. They adopt transactional internet banking to attract new customers. The larger the credit union the higher the probability of adoption of transactional internet banking. The probability of adoption of transactional banking is directly related to credit unions’ efficiency and indirectly related to loan delinquencies. We also find that the probability of credit unions offering transactional internet banking is positively related to the percentage of the young population in the counties where credit unions are located.     

The x-efficiency and allocative efficiency effects of credit union mergers

The relative efficiency effects of Australian credit union mergers are examined. The period of investigation is June 1992–June 1997, which allows the examination of 16 credit union mergers in the 1993–1994 financial year. Multiple regression is applied to examine the impact of credit union mergers on x-efficiency and allocative efficiency. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) frontier approach is used to provide measures of x-efficiency and allocative efficiency. Results provide statistical evidence that, on average, credit union mergers do not result in an increase in x-efficiency or allocative efficiency postmerger relative to other credit unions.     

Economies of Scale and Economies of Scope in Multiproduct Financial Institutions: A Study of British Columbia Credit Unions

This paper investigates the production technology facing computerized credit unions in Canada. A full system of translog cost equations is estimated in order to test for economies of scale, economies of scope, and other production characteristics in a multiproduct context. The regression results indicate that most of the credit unions in our sample experience significant increasing returns to scale as they expand their level of output. There is also evidence of cost complementarity or economies of scope in their mortgage and other lending activities. As a result, legislation which limits the ability of credit unions to grow and diversify will likely raise the operating costs of this important group of financial institutions. Additional structural tests of the most general translog specification suggest that none of the restrictive production conditions commonly imposed by other researchers using Cobb-Douglas and CES specifications provide a valid representation of credit union technology. The results of many earlier studies are therefore open to question.     

Irish credit unions: Differential regulation based on business model complexity

This study examines the business model complexity of Irish credit unions using a latent class approach to measure structural performance over the period 2002 to 2013. The latent class approach allows the endogenous identification of a multi-class framework for business models based on credit union specific characteristics. The analysis finds a three class system to be appropriate with the multi-class model dependent on three financial viability characteristics. This finding is consistent with the deliberations of the Irish Commission on Credit Unions (2012) which identified complexity and diversity in the business models of Irish credit unions and recommended that such complexity and diversity could not be accommodated within a one size fits all regulatory framework. The analysis also highlights that two of the classes are subject to diseconomies of scale. This may suggest credit unions would benefit from a reduction in scale or perhaps that there is an imbalance in the present change process. Finally, relative performance differences are identified for each class in terms of technical efficiency. This suggests that there is an opportunity for credit unions to improve their performance by using within-class best practice or alternatively by switching to another class.     

U.S. credit union motivation for involvement in the first-mortgage market

U.S. credit union involvement in first-mortgage lending has grown rapidly since extended lending powers were granted through several regulatory changes from 1977 to 1984. The purpose of this study is to examine credit unions that initiated first-mortgage lending programs during the period 1983 through 1988, and attempt to identify factors or variables that influenced the decision to become active in the first-mortgage market. The results indicate that there are certain factors that distinguish credit unions that become involved in first-mortgage lending from those that do not. Specifically, the size of a credit union, a full-service orientation, and a residential type of membership bond were factors consistently significant in their relationship to first-mortgage initiation.     

From Wall Street to Main Street: The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Consumer Credit Supply

How did the collapse of the asset‐backed securities (ABS) market during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis affect the supply of credit to the broader economy? Using new data on the U.S. credit union industry, we find that ABS‐related losses are associated with a large contraction in the supply of credit to consumers, especially among those credit unions that began the crisis with weaker capitalization. We also find that this credit supply shock restricted the availability of mortgage and automobile credit. These results show how movements in the prices of financial assets can affect the real economy.     

Prudence and financial self-regulation in credit unions in Northern Ireland

Credit unions in Northern Ireland are subject to a unique combination of statutory oversight and self-regulation. This paper investigates the association between prudence and the monitoring of financial ratios by credit union trade associations. We find that compliance with the mandated level of capital reserves is uniformly high, regardless of the existence or extent of self-regulation. However, after controlling for cross-sectional differences in profitability, age, size, growth and common bond type a positive association exists between self-regulation and financial ratios measuring prudence and loan book quality. These findings have policy implications for the regulation of credit unions in Northern Ireland and elsewhere regarding potential regulatory cost savings from reliance on self-regulation provided by trade associations.     

Do credit unions use their tax advantage to benefit members? Evidence from a cost function

This paper examines whether the credit union income tax subsidy is passed along to members or consumed by managers. To that end, we estimate a translog cost function for credit unions and mutual thrifts that is tailored to the unique objectives of mutually owned depository institutions. We find that credit unions with residential common bonds have higher costs than mutual thrifts, but single common bond occupational and associational credit unions are more cost efficient. Thus, it appears that residential credit unions engage in expense preference behavior and hence redirect some portion of their tax benefit away from members.     

Scale Economies in Credit Unions: Accounting for Subsidies Is Important

In 1998, the Credit Union Services Corporation Australia Limited (CUSCAL) recommended that Australian credit unions with assets below $5 million should consider merging with larger credit unions. This industry position is at odds with empirical studies, which find little evidence of increasing returns to scale in credit unions. However, an important bias in previous studies of scale economies in credit unions has been the omission of credit union subsidies. This paper shows that the failure to account for subsidies biases the results toward finding diseconomies of scale. After correcting for the subsidy bias, there is very strong evidence of increasing returns to scale in a sample of New South Wales credit unions, supporting the industry recommendation.     

Cost efficiency in Australian non-bank financial institutions: A non-parametric approach

A two-stage procedure is employed to evaluate non-bank financial institution cost efficiency. In the first stage, data envelopment analysis is used to calculate technical, allocative and cost efficiency indices using a sample of 200 Australian credit unions. The results indicate that a typical credit union's costs in 1997 were 30 per cent above what could be considered efficient on the basis of observed best practice. The major source of overall cost inefficiency would appear to be allocative inefficiency, rather than technical inefficiency. The second stage uses limited dependent variable regression techniques to relate credit union efficiency scores to financial statement information. The results indicate that commercial lending activities, expenditures on information technology and marketing and promotion, the proportion of non-interest income, and association membership are a significant influence on the level of cost efficiency. The results are found to be invariant to alternative model specifications where input prices are first assumed to be different for each credit union and then assumed to be identical across the sample.     

Board characteristics and credit‐union performance

We examine the role of board characteristics on the performance of Australian credit unions during the period 2004–2012. Credit unions are unique as they are member‐owned institutions, and their directors are democratically elected by their members – an unusual governance structure that poses challenges for board effectiveness. We find that board remuneration, board expertise and attendance at meetings are associated with increased credit‐union performance and are consistent with the goal of maximising member benefits. While the unique features of credit unions limit the presence of external monitoring mechanisms, we provide evidence that these board characteristics are relevant for credit unions.     

Financial literacy and over-indebtedness in low-income households

Financial literacy can explain a significant proportion of wealth inequality. Among the key components of financial literacy are numeracy and money management skills. Our study examines the relative importance of these components in the determination of consumer debt and household net worth among credit union members in socially disadvantaged areas. The main finding from our analysis is that money management skills are important determinants of financial outcomes but that numeracy has almost no role to play. This result adds to a recent US-based behavioural finance literature on the role of attention and planning in consumer finance. Findings are found to be robust when the sample is reduced to only those who have a clear role in household financial decision-making and also when controlling for potential endogeneity. Our findings have policy implications in the UK and elsewhere as credit unions across the world are important players in national financial literacy strategies.     

PROFILING: A STRATEGY FOR SUCCESSFUL VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT IN CREDIT UNIONS

Credit unions are non‐profit financial organisations that provide financial services to their members. They are located in 97 countries across the world. All credit unions are governed by a volunteer board and many are reliant on volunteers for all their labour requirements. However, recruiting volunteers is a problem. The literature on recruitment issues in volunteering in general, suggests that the not‐for‐profit sector looks to the private sector for guidance on recruitment policies and approaches. One such approach which is considered in this paper is ‘market segmentation’ wherein the potential volunteer body is profiled to determine if an individual is likely to volunteer and if they are, to identify the type of role they are most likely to be attracted to. Prior literature on volunteering in non‐profit organisations suggests that certain types of individual (dominant individuals) are more likely to volunteer. This paper investigates whether this dominant status profile is evident amongst volunteers in credit unions in Northern Ireland (NI). The study finds that people with dominant characteristics are more likely to be attracted to volunteering to the board of directors and individuals who have less dominant traits overall should be offered more social/participative type roles. This information can be used by credit union governing boards for volunteer recruitment, retention and management purposes.     

The Economic Impact of the Federal Credit Union Usury Ceiling

This study measures the impact of the Federal credit union usury ceiling on consumer credit availability and loan rates. When binding, the ceiling keeps loan rates low, but it reduces credit union lending. There is also evidence that a binding loan rate ceiling affects the competitiveness of credit unions in the market for deposits. Although the Federal Credit Union Act specifically mandates federally chartered credit unions to be a source of low cost consumer credit and to promote thriftiness, it is not at all clear that the intent of the Act is served by a binding usury ceiling.