The number of US credit unions thrown around is a fairly misleading. The majority of decreases in this number are mergers, not CUs being "shut down". A more use

The number of US credit unions thrown around is a fairly misleading. The majority of decreases in this number are mergers, not CUs being "shut down". A more useful number may be the total number of US credit union members over the same period of time. The credit union that disappears form the official count usually doesn't see much more than a name change, and adding new services & members. This usually results in better service for both original CUs members; a combination of branch locations, ATMs, and services from both of the original CUs. I've also never heard of "force them to merge their assets into bigger credit unions". Would be very interesting to hear more specifics about this, if it actually means something more than 'hassle them so much that they find a larger CU to merge into, on their own, just to escape'.