A new study provides strong data showing that women run most of the credit unions in the nation.
The study was conducted by a team of economists at the Credit Union National Association (CUNA)
According to Lauren Williams Media Relations Manager of CUNA:
Accounting for differences in asset size, Cuna says there is no evidence for a gender pay gap at credit unions.
The study says there are no significant differences in compensation for female credit union CEOs versus male CEOs at similarly-sized institutions.
An interesting takeaway from this study is that female-led credit unions hold more actual cash in their vaults, have a lower amount of mortgages, and grow slower in terms of loans and members.
Generally, females are underrepresented in management positions at firms and financial institutions. In the U.S., only 5% of commercial bank CEOs and 6% of Fortune 500 company CEOs are female.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that, globally, only 2% of financial institution CEOs are female. In contrast, 52% of credit union CEOs are female.
“Looking at only U.S. banks and credit unions with between $1-billion and $3-billion in assets, 14.2% of credit union CEOs are female versus only 3.6% of bank CEOs.”
It’s important to note that only 1% of banks and credit unions have more than $3-billion in assets.
A CEO of a credit union is about four times more likely to be female than a CEO of a bank, even after accounting for differences in the number of assets.
According to CUNA, female CEOs are more common at the smaller banks and credit unions.
The study says that there are no statistically significant differences in compensation for credit union CEOs that are female versus male at similarly-sized institutions.
However male CEOs are more common at larger credit unions, banks, and other organizations. The larger institutions tend to pay CEOs more, so male CEOs receive higher compensation than females, on average.
Another interesting takeaway from this study is that female-led credit unions are more conservative than male-led credit unions.
