The State of Credit Union Governance, 2018

How are credit union boards performing? That’s a question being answered by new research from CUES and Quantum Governance, L3C.

The State of Credit Union Governance, 2018 describes credit union board, supervisory committee and senior staff members’ responses to this very question. Based on five years of surveys, it includes answers from 70 credit unions ranging in assets from $30 million to $5 billion. More than half of respondents were from credit unions with assets $1 billion or more, says Michael Daigneault, CCD, founder and CEO of Quantum Governance, L3C. Daigneault was my guest on the CUES Podcast Episode 47, during which we discussed the report.

Here are several highlights from the report:

1. Board members and CEOs frequently differ on their perceptions related to governance.
2. As time goes by, board members have a more positive view of the credit union’s board governance. But longer-tenured CEOs tend to have a more negative view of the credit union’s governance.
3. The larger CUs in the report have better results when it comes to governance. They feel more positive about their governance practices than smaller credit unions do.
4. Credit unions that don’t do a comprehensive assessment may have a slightly skewed perspective. When boards do a simple assessment survey, they tend to rate themselves higher. But those credit unions that do a more comprehensive assessment—with a survey, interviews, document review and an observation of their board meetings—take a much more realistic view of their governance practices.
5. Respondents are very concerned about recruiting future board members. Almost half (46%) said their process for finding, recruiting and nominating new board talent is only adequate or less than adequate. “That is a real concern for the future,” Daigneault says.
6. Just 27% of senior staff and 25% of CEOs said that their boards were very effective at building a leadership culture of trust compared to 44% of board members who said they were effective at building trust. “We need to understand this gap,” he says.

Daigneault suggests several steps to take after reviewing the survey findings. Listen to them in Episode 47 of the CUES Podcast.

The CUES podcast is an audio program hosted by James Lenz, CUES' professional development manager. James talks to credit union and cross-industry experts for their perspectives on trends and topics that matter to you.

The State of CU Governance, 2018 is free to all CUES members. Non-members can access the executive summary for free and purchase a copy of the full report for just $99.

You may also be interested in attending Governance Leadership Institute™.