Credit unions serve 145 million members but hold a fraction of the market. This is the coordinated plan — and the crack team — to double our share of deposits and consumer lending by 2035. One strategy a week. Hundreds of credit unions. One direction.
Reaching 20% of deposits and consumer lending means roughly doubling the movement's relative footprint in a decade — while the megabanks outspend us and neobanks acquire members at near-zero cost. It is achievable. It has been done before. But not by any credit union acting alone.
Credit unions punch far below their membership in share of national deposits and consumer lending. The distance to 20% is the whole project.
Between 2002 and 2012, UK credit unions doubled membership and tripled lending. In 2026 they committed to double again by 2035. This is the American plan.
Roughly 4,500 credit unions compete for the same members in the same markets. Fragmentation is the megabanks' best friend — and cooperation is the counter.
Every week, one strategy — led by whichever perspective the moment calls for. The biggest questions run as a debate between two of them, because that's the exact conversation every leadership team needs to have.
An open, scored strategy bank — ranked by market-share impact, feasibility, speed, and AI leverage. Every credit union can pull from it, run a project, and report what happened. Here's a look at the top of the list.
A focused campaign to become the account a member's paycheck lands in — the cheapest, stickiest deposit there is.
Cash-flow underwriting for thin-file members — serve the borrower the bank turned away, safely, with AI.
Let AI absorb the routine and convert staff from transaction processors into member advisors. Cuts cost and grows revenue at once.
AI deposit pricing that pays up only for the members who would actually leave — instead of overpaying the whole book.
A shared, credit-union-owned AI and data platform — the advantage no single institution can build alone.
Lookalike modeling that turns your happiest members into a precise map of who to reach next.
Public commitment is the mechanism. It turns a good idea into peer momentum, and peer momentum into a movement that actually moves the number.
One strategy a week, written by operators who've run the institutions.
The margin math and the threat map prove standing still is the risky choice.
Pledge to run a set number of projects by a date. Your name joins the wall.
Join a cohort of peers running the same project, with a contributor as sponsor.
Your results become the next case study — and recruit the next credit union.
Every name is a commitment to run real projects and share what happens. Add yours.
Illustrative founding wall for this draft — real signatories populate here as they commit.
A new strategy every week, from the four lenses. Read it, steal it, run it.
Almost every strategy that grows share makes net interest margin worse. Here's the math — and why cost takeout is the permission slip for the whole share war.
Let AI take the routine and turn your people into advisors — the rare move that cuts cost and grows revenue at once.
We celebrate the savings account and let the paycheck walk out the door. That gap will decide whether the movement doubles.
Signing the 20*35 pledge means one thing: your credit union commits to run real projects from the strategy bank — and to share what you learn with the movement.
No dues. No consultants. Just a public commitment to grow, together, and the peers and playbook to do it.
Welcome to the movement. We'll be in touch with your cohort and the full strategy bank.