What Velera’s report overlooks: the human engine behind Gen Z growth

Velera’s 2025 Credit Union Growth Outlook lands close to home for us at Currency Marketing. Its vision of young people as the bridge between what the credit-union system is today and what it could become tomorrow mirrors our own. We’ve long argued that youth engagement through financial education, community presence and co-operative storytelling is not optional but essential to the credit union system’s survival.

Since its release, Velera’s report has circulated widely across industry channels, cited for its clear focus on Gen Z as the generation that will define credit-union relevance and growth. That attention is well deserved. Velera, the combined strength of PSCU (Payment Systems for Credit Unions) and Co-op Solutions, supports more than 4,000 financial institutions and remains one of the most credible voices in payments, data and innovation across North America.

As a company of credit union veterans, Currency Marketing has spent decades helping co-operatives thrive through financial education programs. We’ll support any organization whose goals align with ours. Yet from our vantage point, Growth Outlook 2025 overlooks one essential reality: most credit unions are small or small-to-mid-sized operations, and their ability to connect with Gen Z depends less on digital-transformation budgets than on education-led engagement. 

What Velera’s 2025 report reveals

Velera’s Credit Union Growth Outlook 2025 isn’t freely available online. Like many of the organization’s research offerings, it’s shared through a download form, reflecting its role as a lead-generation and thought-leadership piece. That said, its insights are worth the exchange.

The report shows that Gen Z is redefining the future of financial services. Key findings include:

• Gen Z is projected to become the largest and wealthiest generation in history, with spending expected to reach US $12.6 trillion by 2030

• 72 percent of Gen Z say they feel less in control of their finances than other generations

• 36 percent trust financial institutions for financial advice, while 28 percent trust influencers, underscoring the social media influence gap

• Gen Z members are less loyal to financial brands and more open to switching when they find better value, convenience or shared values

• Velera concludes that success with this cohort depends on blending digital fluency with authentic human connection

The full report goes deeper into these themes, including data visualizations on Gen Z’s financial goals, attitudes toward credit unions and comparative trust in virtual banks. Readers can request the report directly on Velera's website.

Small but mighty: the credit-union landscape

In the U.S., there are 4,411 federally insured credit unions with combined assets of roughly US$2.37 trillion. Fewer than 500 have assets above US$1 billion, meaning nearly 90 percent operate below that threshold, and more than 3,000 serve fewer than 10,000 members.

In Canada, the credit-union system is smaller overall but follows a similar pattern. There are roughly 440 credit unions and caisses populaires (what credit unions are known as in Quebec) serving more than 10 million members nationwide, holding a combined CA$800 billion in assets.

The system has also grown steadily more top-heavy. According to WOWA’s 30 Largest Credit Unions in Canada (October 2024), the top 30 institutions account for close to CA$700 billion in assets, nearly the entire system total. This concentration is the result of more than two decades of mergers and consolidations, especially in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Outside Québec, most credit unions now operate as independent regional co-operatives. The largest, such as Vancity, Coast Capital, Servus, Meridian and Alterna, hold multi-billion-dollar balance sheets and serve hundreds of thousands of members. Below them sits a long tail of smaller community credit unions, many with assets under CA$1 billion, modest staffing and lean marketing resources that mirror U.S. community credit unions.

Within Québec, credit unions are organized under Desjardins Group, a province-wide federation that unites more than 200 local caisses, representing about five million members and CA$470 billion in assets. Desjardins functions as both a co-operative network and one of Canada’s largest financial institutions.

This structure makes Canada’s system unique: one large co-operative group in Québec, a handful of regional giants elsewhere, and a wide base of smaller, community-focused credit unions that continue to define the co-operative movement.

Marketing budgets: David’s slingshot is tiny

The imbalance is clear. In marketing, David rarely beats Goliath. Bigger spenders win the battle for attention, share and sales. Most credit unions simply can’t afford to buy awareness at that scale, so their growth must come from a different lever: education.

• Industry data show U.S. credit-union marketing budgets average only about 0.10 percent of assets (roughly 3.5 percent of non-interest expense)

• Fintechs, by contrast, devote around 17 percent of non-interest expense to marketing, nearly five times the bank average

• In Canada, the largest 116 credit unions reported CA$197 million on donations, sponsorships and marketing programs, just 2.4 percent of operating costs

• Central 1’s benchmarking studies include Marketing Priorities & Budgets, confirming that marketing is tracked but typically on a modest scale

The economics are stark. If a single-branch credit union tries to outspend fintechs or national banks, David loses to Goliath every time. The smart play is to outteach them through affordable, high-impact education initiatives that build trust and visibility.

Gen Z’s anxiety gap: where guidance fails, education wins

Velera highlights that Gen Z’s annual spending will reach US$12.6 trillion by 2030, nearly 19 percent of global consumption. They’re on track to become the largest and wealthiest generation in history.

Yet 72 percent of Gen Z feel financially burdened, listing top goals such as financial independence (37 percent), not living paycheck to paycheck (33 percent) and building an emergency fund (33 percent).

They crave financial control, but they’re learning from TikTok, YouTube and finfluencers, where entertainment and misinformation blur. Velera notes that 36 percent trust financial institutions, while 28 percent trust influencers for financial advice, a dangerously narrow gap that shows how fragile trust has become.

This is Gen Z’s anxiety gap, a generation that wants guidance but often gets noise. Velera concludes that success depends on blending digital fluency with human connection. We agree, but we’d go further: education is that connection.

Financial education is the bridge between information and confidence. It’s how credit unions can fill the trust gap, not by selling, but by teaching. Show up early, in schools, colleges and online spaces, as teachers, not advertisers.

Gen Z doesn’t need another campaign. They need clarity. And education delivers it.

Education: the missing strategy in Velera’s playbook

Velera’s report emphasizes technology, personalization and data analytics as the engines of Gen Z engagement. Those tools matter, but they demand budgets and teams that most credit unions simply don’t have. What’s missing from Velera’s framework is the one strategy that scales without cost inflation: education.

A financial-literacy partnership achieves what digital transformation promises, relevance, trust and connection, but through people, not platforms. Once established, programs like It’s a Money Thing can reach thousands of students annually with minimal incremental expense while building credibility that no paid-media campaign can buy.

For smaller credit unions, that’s the competitive equalizer. Education is both brand and bridge, a repeatable, compounding growth system that turns classroom curiosity into lifelong membership.

From Gen Z to system renewal

Gen Z isn’t just the next generation of members; they are the next generation of co-operative leaders. They already influence household decisions, helping parents and grandparents navigate online banking, budgeting apps and digital payments. That influence will only grow.

The real question isn’t whether they will lead, but which institutions they will trust when they do. Credit unions that invest in teaching now will be the ones Gen Z remembers, not as advertisers, but as mentors.

Education plants the seeds of continuity. It builds understanding that outlasts interest rates and incentives. And it ensures the co-operative difference survives in the hands of those who will define its future.

The takeaway

Velera’s Growth Outlook 2025 is credible, data-rich and widely discussed. But while it diagnoses the challenge accurately, it prescribes systems, not human connection.

Financial education is the missing link and the strongest trust bridge credit unions can build. It translates data into understanding and understanding into action.

For smaller credit unions, it’s the one tool they can afford to pull.

You don’t need to outmarket the banks.

You just need to out teach them.