Scale
At the end of December 2018, the British credit union sector had:
- Around 283 credit unions across England, Scotland and Wales employing more than 1,700 staff
- 1,372,416 people using credit unions, including 136,491 junior depositors
- Total assets of £1.63 billion
- Total loans of £969 million
- Total deposits of £1.37 billion
- Annual turnover of £120 million (year to December 2018)
Sources: PRA unaudited quarterly figures for December 2018
Growth
In the year to September 2017, the sector grew:
- Membership by 1%
- Assets by 6%
- Loans by 7%
- Deposits by 6%
- Turnover by 1%
Source: audited, annual figures for 2017
In the decade from 2007 to 2017, the sector:
- Almost doubled in membership and loans by 188% and 208% respectively
- Almost trebled deposits and assets by 283% and 277% respectively
Source: PRA audited, 2017 annual figures and ABCUL
Note: Annual figures are not available until July the year after.
International
While credit unions in Britain remain relatively small, internationally there are:
- Active credit union sectors in 117 countries with 89,026 credit unions
- More than 260 million credit union members
- Assets of over $2.1 trillion
- Loans of over $1.5 trillion
- Deposits of over $1.7 trillion
High penetration rates in many developed countries:
- 52% in USA
- 42% in Canada
- 26% in Australia
Source: WOCCU Statistical Report 2017
WOCCU’s full annual statistical report is available here.