The ordinary human being does not live long enough to draw any substantial benefit from his own experience. And no one can benefit by the experience of others. . . each (generation) must learn its lessons anew. (Albert Einstein) October 26, 1929)
On October 20, 2025 Callahan published an analysis with multiple charts showing how mergers are changing the institutional character of the credit union system. The graphs have ten and twenty year times lines documenting the number, size and source by segment of this consolidation.
The analysis, Credit Union Mergers on the Rise, provides essential macro trends to track how this consolidation is affecting the institutional structure in the credit union system. One example is that over the past ten years the average credit union asset size has increased from $188 million to $538 million.
There are many other data points one might take from the article to help frame critical question that should be considered, but are often overlooked. For many view this consolidation as inevitable and necessary.
Some Important Questions that Need Answers
The basic financial math of a credit union mergers is simple: 1 + 1 = 1. There are no added members, shares, loans, employees or outlets. Instead in most cases a financially strong long-standing coop has turned over all of its members’s assets, equity and future direction to another organization whose leadership they had no role in evaluating or choosing. Sometimes new management is hundreds or even thousands of miles distant with no connection with the merged credit union members.
Credit unions are built on relationships/bonds and generations of member-owner loyalty. That was their initial capital and the foundation for much of their public reputational goodwill today.
So it is important to consider whether this passive and sometimes questionable activity is helping or hurting the system’s future. Are mergers a symptom of a system’s weakness, or its strength?
The Need for an Industry Conversation
Other questions that could help member-owners and cu leaders better understand and evaluate what is occurring could include:
Is consolidation resulting in fewer charters inevitable?
How has the coop system’s approach to merger changed over the past decades? What role and benefits are third parties gaining in these combinations?
What are options for credit unions who feel the need to merge?
What should member-owners know when asked to approve the transfer of their entire coop’s assets and legacy about the performance, business priorities, and leadership of the continuing credit union?
What is the fiduciary duty to the member-owners when leadership decides to seek a merger? How should the conflicts of interest be addressed with CEO’s negotiating their own merger benefits?
What is the regulator’s role when reviewing merger applications? What is their obligation to the member-owners? Are they responsible for the information owners receive when approving the Member Notice announcing members’ voting role?
Has there been any multi-year studies of well capitalized credit union mergers and the before and after performance trends over a fiveyear period? How did members value change? What happened to their community relationships and employees? What are the additional immediate costs incurred by mergers?
Who Will Lead These Dialogues?
How one introduces an issue will often determine what actions are necessary. With mergers occurring at an average of three to four per week, there has been no industry discussion of the implications and the impact on members.
Now, not later is the tme to understand the consequences of mergers.
Individual instances of multibillion dollar cross- country combinations or when one credit union completes three mergers in one month and ten in one year are routinely announced. But these apparent individual actions will have significant consequences for every other credit union.
For no credit union stands alone. All are part of an interdependent system that creates individual opportunities and vulnerabilities.
Merger activities are having important conseqences for our member-owners, their communities, and the shape of financial options in America.
The future of the coop system’s will be different. This is not an effort to go back to what was. Rather it is a necessary examination, as Einstein might suggest, to plumb our wisdom for future generations now.