By Kenneth Stivers
How do financial institutions earn their first relationship with the next generation, and keep it? I’ve been trying to find an answer to that question for over a decade and, for credit unions, the need for a solution has never been more urgent.
Digital-first experiences, combined with member-first traditional values, put credit unions in an ideal position to secure Gen Z members… or do they? Studies show that CUs excel at youth acquisition but fail to retain them long term.
While diving into the NCUA’s second-quarter 2026 state-level data, I came across an alarming pattern: membership kept growing in the aggregate, yet at the median it fell by 0.6 percent. This means that the median institution is losing members and requires an immediate solution.
Not Really a Membership Problem, But an Age Issue
Nearly a quarter of youth account holders never leave the financial institution where they opened their account, according to Rivel Banking Research. So, by missing the first touchpoint of the financial relationship with Gen Z and Gen Alpha members, credit unions are not only losing a youth account, but a potential lifetime member before the relationship even starts.
Moreover, the median member at most credit unions is getting older every year. This means that acquiring young members is a must. Parents are opening accounts for their kids earlier than any generation before them, in many cases before age 12, and CUs are no longer the obvious choice for them.
The Old Youth Playbook Doesn’t Work Anymore
Credit unions have always cared about young people. As member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperatives, CUs can bring added value to the table for their members through lower fees, better rates, and community involvement, something that banks cannot compete with.
But somewhere along the way, the youth playbook stops working. Either the teen forgets about their account until they turn 18, or they get financial education lessons instead of real-life experience.
The problem is simple: You don’t learn how to manage your money by hearing about how to do it. You learn by managing it. And that’s what we’ve built on GenAspire.
Learning by Doing
The approach we took is giving young people real accounts, real money, and allowing them to make real decisions, letting mistakes stay small, with boundaries that let their parents stay involved and vigilant.
For the young account holders, this means budgeting their own money, saving, and facing the consequences of not managing their money wisely. Financial education then goes from being unrelatable to an actual experience.
And in our experience, when a teen learns by doing, he/she builds real financial capability, which in turn makes them a more creditworthy borrower later. Plus, the credit union builds a strong relationship with the parents, since they are engaged in the early stages as well.
What Credit Unions Can Do
The first step is understanding your membership base. If the median member age is climbing, but the members under 25 stay flat or diminish, then it’s time to act.
Credit unions shouldn’t measure their youth success by the number of accounts, but by their participation, usage, and retention. CUs’ personal service must be backed by technology to provide every Gen Z member with a specific set of services to allow them to build their financial wellness while staying on top of new features that may improve the user experience.
Because young people will always compare their credit union mobile experience to the fintech apps they use, it’s not enough to have a physical presence. CUs need to keep up with technology advancements and pay special attention to what the younger generations are looking for.
Financial education must be a part of the product strategy, and not a side project. By understanding how fintechs have captured the attention of younger consumers and how those strategies can be adapted, credit unions can build trust, deepen loyalty, and drive long-term value.
Mission Remains the Same
Credit unions have always been about helping members, and that approach shouldn’t change. Yes, the median CU lost members last year, but Gen Z and the next generations need guidance more than ever before.
By showing up early and providing tools and services while making them protagonists of their first financial relationship instead of keeping them on the sidelines, credit unions can grow with them for a lifetime. At the end of the day, that’s what credit unions were built for.
Kenneth Stivers is founder of GenAspire, Inc.
