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Select Employee Group additions increased in 2021, varying in size from one to 1.7 million potential members. Discover what other insights our analysis revealed.
What is a SEG?
Select Employee Groups, or SEGs, are groups that share any common bond of association or occupation. Common types of SEGs include: employees of a company, contractors who commonly work for the same company, members of a fraternal organization, members of a church, students of a school, etc.
Who adds SEGs to their field of membership?
Adding SEGs is the primary method that federal multiple common bond credit unions use to grow their field of membership (FOM), though they can also expand through underserved areas. Federal single common bond credit unions can also add SEGs, and in doing so they may become multiple common bond.
What did SEG Additions look like in 2021?
There were 8,756 select employee groups added to the fields of membership of 290 federal credit unions over the past year. Compared to the 7,539 SEGs added by 293 credit unions in 2020, this represents a 16% increase in the number of groups added and a very slight 0.6% decrease in the number of credit unions that were able to add SEGs.
Types of SEGs
Analyzing the data, we identified three primary types of SEGs: 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 phrases such as "students of."
In 2021, 8,335 groups were employer-based, representing 95.2% of SEGs added. 305 groups were associations, 85 groups were schools, and 31 groups fell into other categories.
Sizes of SEGs
The sizes of SEGs added varied from one to 1,700,000 members. 50% of SEGs had four or less members, 75% of SEGs had 18 or less members, and 90% of SEGs had 100 or less members.
Seasonality of SEG Additions
For the year 2021, SEG additions peaked in the month of March, which coincides with tax return season.
When we take a closer look at the number of additions occurring each day, no clear pattern emerges in regards to which day of the month the additions occur.
Conclusion
The number of select employee groups added to fields of membership rose significantly in the year 2021 and the number of credit unions that were able to add SEGs slightly declined, matching the trend we saw in our 2020 SEG Analysis. Furthermore, these groups tended to have employer-based common bonds and had less than 100 members.
Contact us today to learn more about our select employee group consulting services and see how adding SEGs could help your credit union grow.
Field of Membership Expansion
