Next up is small credit union specialist FedComp, which serves 597 credit unions.
But in sheer number of clients, Fiserv dominates, with 1,775 of the nation’s 5,551 credit unions running on the fintech giant’s various cores as of mid-year 2018. Two of those — Portico and CUSA — were third and fourth on the list, at 328 and 290 credit unions, respectively.
The distribution of client adoption among providers varies through the asset bands tracked by Callahan & Associates. For example, in the $50 million to $250 million group, significant market share remains in the hands of CU*Answers (92), CMC-FLEX (90) and Finastra (70).
As size begins to increase, Finastra — owner of the UltraData platform — gains more traction, moving into third behind Fiserv and Symitar with 40 credit union clients between $250 million and $1 billion in assets.
It’s also interesting to look at year-over-year net gains in client numbers. There were 10 that showed a net positive from the second quarter of 2017 to 2018. Most of the gains were small, with Corelationclaiming the top spot there with a net gain of 6.
Properly choosing and effectively partnering with the right core processor can allow credit unions to respond to a changing marketplace with product and service enhancements, all while controlling expenses.
That’s true regardless of size, as shown in the table that compares performance by asset size.
Callahan’s annual Supplier Market Share Guide: Credit Union Core Processors offers an in-depth examination of the core processor market. Download the 2019 edition today.
Click the tabs below to view graphs.
TOP PROVIDERS BY NUMBER OF CLIENTS <$50M
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 06.30.18
Fiserv had 823 core processing clients of less than $50 million in assets in the second quarter of 2018. That’s from a client count of 1,775 credit unions. FedComp, meanwhile, had 596 in that asset group, all but one of its total client count in the second quarter of 2018.
TOP PROVIDERS BY NUMBER OF CLIENTS $50M-$250M
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 06.30.18
Fiserv claimed as core clients 595 of the 1,436 credit unions in the $50 million to $250 million asset class as of mid-2018. Symitar was a distant second at 166.
TOP PROVIDERS BY NUMBER OF CLIENTS $250M-$1B
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 06.30.18
There were 600 credit unions of $250 million to $1 billion in assets as of June 30, 2018. Fiserv and Symitar together, at 234 and 210, respectively, accounted for approximately 75% of the market share for that group. Finastra’s UltraData platform claimed 40.
TOP PROVIDERS BY NUMBER OF CLIENTS >$1B
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 06.30.18
Symitar had the most billion-dollar credit union core clients, at 131, with Fiserv close behind at 123. Together, that’s 83.3% of the market share for the big credit unions.
MARKET SHARE FOR TOP 20 CORE PROVIDERS BY NUMBER OF CREDIT UNION
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 06.30.18
Fiserv’s market share as measured by client count dropped slightly from 31.99% to 31.72% in 2018. Symitar’s rose slightly from 10.83% to 11.28%. Small credit union specialist FedComp remained virtually unchanged, moving from 10.67% at mid-2017 to 10.64% a year later.
CORE PROCESSOR CLIENT PERFORMANCE COMPARISON BY ASSETS
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 06.30.18
The 211 credit unions running on FIS core platforms average $863.2 million in assets and 2.85% in operating expenses/average assets, which is considered a key efficiency measure. Meanwhile, the 597 credit unions on the FedComp platform average $5.1 million in size and have a similar opex ratio. Click here to view larger.
PLATFORM MARKET SHARE: TOP 25 IN NUMBER OF CLIENTS
FOR U.S. CREDIT UNIONS | DATA AS OF 06.30.18
For the past two years, more credit unions have run on Symitar Episys than any other platform.
This article initially appeared in Credit Union Times in February 2019.
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