Technology

Part 1: 2026 Actionable Growth Goals Measure Member Economic Participation, Not Just Products or Balances

Vertice AI

26 Feb 2026 • 2 min read

As we look ahead to 2026, I am kicking off a short three-part series on goals I believe every credit union leader should consider for the year ahead. I want to start with one of the most foundational shifts our industry can make. Measure member economic participation. Actually measure it.

We have leaned for decades on traditional metrics like products per member, total assets, loan growth and ROA. They are helpful indicators, but none of them truly capture what a cooperative is built to maximize. They do not tell us whether members are meaningfully participating in the value you create or whether the relationship is deepening or drifting.

Credit unions already have the philosophical blueprint in the cooperative principles. What has been missing is a practical way to measure how those principles show up in member behavior. 2026 should be the year we change that.

Think about how other industries measure participation. I live near Atlanta, Delta Airlines no longer ranks loyalty by just miles traveled or who books the cheapest ticket. They rank it by engagement across the journey. Miles flown, frequency, breadth of activity, spend across categories and consistency over time. Streaming platforms do the same. They are not counting how many times I signed up. They are measuring what I actually watch, how often I return and how deeply I use the service.

Financial services should not be any different. A checking account alone does not equal engagement. A large balance does not automatically equal loyalty. And an indirect auto borrower often has no relationship at all beyond a single transaction.

This is why having a comprehensive approach to measuring Member Participation is so important. Measuring holistic member economic participation should look at how deeply members participate across your products, how their relationship changes over time, and what behaviors indicate growth versus risk. At Vertice we have created a unique algorithm with our MPP score to help quantify this, but the specific tool matters less than the strategic intention behind it. Every credit union can build its own version.

And when you do, you start unlocking new ways to support and reward your members.

One of our credit union clients recently used our MPP score to guide a major year-end dividend decision. Instead of distributing value based solely on deposit size or loan balances, they prioritized members who were most engaged across the institution. Members with modest balances but strong overall participation were recognized alongside those with larger accounts. The result was a rewards program that genuinely reflected the cooperative idea of participation, not just wealth or account size.

This is where measurement changes outcomes. When you understand participation, you can:

Identify who is growing their relationship
See who may be quietly disengaging
Align incentives and rewards with cooperative values
Guide your strategy with clarity instead of assumption

And yes, this approach also happens to make board conversations much more interesting than reciting products per member yet again.

So here is my recommended goal for 2026:

Create a clear, consistent way to measure member economic participation and use it to guide strategy, engagement and value distribution.

When you can see participation clearly, everything else about growth and loyalty becomes easier to solve.

Part 2 coming soon.

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