Table of contents
What is a SEG?
Though commonly referred to as Select Employee Groups or SEGs, these groups can share any common bond of association or occupation, not just a single employer. Common types of SEGs include: employees of a company, employees of a government agency, contractors who commonly work for the same company, members of a church, members of a fraternal association, etc.
Who adds SEGs to their field of membership?
Federal multiple common bond credit unions grow their field of membership primarily through adding SEGs, though they can also expand using underserved areas. Most state-chartered credit unions also operate by adding SEGs; depending on their specific state regulations they may even be allowed to have SEGs as well as a geographic area within their field of membership. Federal single common bond credit unions can add SEGs too, and in doing so they may become multiple common bond.
What are some common features of SEG Additions?
CUCollaborate employed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request data on all SEG additions by federal credit unions between 2008 and 2019. Using this data, we found interesting information about the types, sizes, and locations of these groups and the seasonality of their additions to credit union fields of membership.
Types of SEGs
We identified three primary types of SEGs in the data: those that are employer based with FOM charters containing phrases like “employees of” or “employed by;” associations with FOM charters containing phrases like “members of;” and schools with FOM charters containing such as “students of." The overwhelming majority of SEGs were employer-based. Of more than 107,000 groups added between 2008 and 2019, more than 100,000 of them were employer-based SEGs.
Sizes of SEGs
In addition to being primarily employer-based, SEGs were also mostly of a similar size – 50 members or fewer. As can be seen in the histogram below, there are very few SEGs added with more than 250 members:
Locations of SEGs
We also analyzed which states added the most SEGs. More than 20,000 SEGs from Pennsylvania partnered with credit unions between 2008 and 2019. Other states with a high number of new groups include New York, Utah, and Hawaii.
Seasonality of SEGs
SEG Additions peaked in the month of March, which coincides with the tax return season.
Number of Credit Unions Adding SEGs
The number of credit union adding SEGs between 2008 and 2019 has steadily decreased; this could be a reflection of the decline in the number of credit unions that exist in general or market saturation.
Conclusion
Our analysis uncovered some interesting insights about the types of groups that collaborate with credit unions. Notably, these groups are mostly employer-based, have an average size of 50 members, and many are located in Pennsylvania. We also discovered that SEG Additions peak in the month of March and the number of credit unions adding SEGs is on a decline.
Field of Membership Expansion
