Fast-growing California credit union enters the industry’s ‘big 3’
While Navy Federal, the world’s largest credit union, grew its assets by $11 billion in the first six months of 2025, its earnings fell by 7%.
Quick: Name the three largest credit unions in the U.S. by assets.
Ok, Navy Federal is number one. That one is easy. The world’s largest credit union boasted $191.8 billion of assets as of June 30, which represents 8% year-over-year growth. Heck, Navy FCU’s total assets nearly equals the next six largest credit unions combined.
And most industry observers know that North Carolina-based State Employees’ Credit Union has long been the second-largest credit union in the U.S. SECU had $56.2 billion of assets at the end of the second quarter, according to call report data recently released by the National Credit Union Administration.
But who is number three?
For years, Pentagon Federal held that spot. But a recent dip in assets has dropped the McLean, Virginia-based organization to the number four position, more than $4 billion of assets behind number three.
And that post now belongs to SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union. The Tustin, California-based institution had $34.1 billion of assets as of June 30 – a 10% year-over-year increase.
The credit union, which serves educational communities in California, has also experienced strong growth in membership and earnings of late.
Its membership grew by 6% during the last year to nearly 1.5 million. And its net income increased by a whopping 73% during the past four quarters to $98.9 million at June 30.
Navy Federal Credit Union’s surpassing of the $191 billion asset mark in the second quarter brings $200 billion within striking distance.
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That target might still seem to be a ways off until you realize that the credit union ended 2024 with $180.8 billion, meaning it added roughly $11 billion in growth just since the start of 2025.
Vienna, Virginia-based Navy Federal also grew its membership by 7% year over year. Navy boasted 14.8 million members at the end of June compared to 13.8 million a year earlier.
At the same time, State Employees’ grew by 4% in the second quarter to 2.9 million members.
Comprehensive industry data for the second quarter is not yet available, but membership growth has been a sore spot across the space for the past few quarters.
Some credit unions believe that advertising is the key to attracting new members.
Navy Federal, for example, spent $227 million on marketing and promotion in 2024 – up 16% from 2023. And the credit union already spent $112.6 million on advertising in the first six months of this year, a 23% increase compared to a year earlier.
State Employees’ spent just $1.4 million on marketing and promotion in 2024 but apparently plans on upping that amount considerably this year. The credit union spent $1.5 million in the first half, an 87% increase compared to the first six months of 2024.
A Tyfone analysis of earnings for the largest credit unions in the country showed mixed results.
According to the call reports, Navy Federal earned roughly $924.4 million in the first half of 2025, a 7% decrease compared with a year earlier. Meanwhile, SECU more than doubled its earnings compared to the same period a year ago. Its 2025 net income was more than $181 million compared to $90 million at June 30, 2024.
PenFed’s earnings rose 82% to $83.1 million.
