Earnings growth has been a struggle of late for many U.S. credit unions.

The National Credit Union Administration recently revealed that net income across the industry fell $0.5 billion, or 3.6% year over year, to $14.4 billion in 2024.

But that has not been the case for $8.3 billion-asset Members 1st Credit Union in Enola, Pennsylvania.

The credit union saw net income of $40.5 million in the first quarter of 2025, a 53% increase compared to the year-ago quarter. And that growth came on the heels of $127 million of earnings for the full year 2024.

Sure, the Q1 growth was far below the net income of Vienna, Virginia-based Navy Federal, which earned roughly $489 million in the quarter. But it approached the net income of Raleigh, North Carolina-based State Employees’ Credit Union – the second-largest credit union in the U.S. – which earned $44.7 million in the first quarter.

So what has led to Members 1st success?

President and CEO Mike Wilson told Tyfone one factor has been the organization’s focus on eliminating fraud.

“That is something that we’ve taken very seriously,” Wilson said. “We have moved a number of things around internally to be able to leverage our scale, and we have involved our IT department heavily because they can look at patterns and introduce kill chains. They have just been phenomenal in making a difference.”

The credit union feels so strongly about the importance of fraud prevention it has even been hosting roundtables on the topic.

The other area of focus on the expense side has been in operations, Wilson said.

“And it’s really going through all of your technology and seeing, is there overlap, is there a redundancy? Are there cost savings to be had if you engage your vendors, for example,” Wilson said.

And the credit union’s leadership team also makes a point of holding each other accountable.

Executives will often ask each other if a planned hire is really necessary or if a budgeted expense can hold for a little while longer or even be reduced or cut.

“So if everybody is accountable for the same goals, they start to police them a little bit differently, and we’ve been able to make some smart decisions that way that have really helped with our net income,” he said.

“We ask the question, ‘should we be doing that right now?’ And if so, why? And if not, can we hold for a little while?”

 – Mike Wilson
President & CEO
Members 1st Credit Union