March 5, 2010
Federal Charter for Credit Unions
Hi all,
I’m just pouring over the CUCC position paper for a federal charter for Credit Unions. While I’m sure it will take some years to develop the legislation and manage the risks and implications of offering federal incorporation, developing your own credit union’s strategy (or not) will likely take the same amount of time. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on this and have created a topic in the forums for this discussion.
CU Online,
Robert
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I am a new Board Chair, and come at this with a strong philosophical bent. I have been active in the CU movement for 50 years on and off. I see CUs as fundamentally community organisations, at their heart, alternatives to the Big Banks insofar as they are run locally, keep the money local, and are for the mutual benefit of the local population. All these are the direct opposite of huge trans-provincial organisations. I think the attempt to gain Federal charters strikes at the most fundamental essence of what a CU is, and oppose it vehemently.
Comment by
David Maxwell — March 30, 2010 @ 12:28 pm
Interesting perspective. If I understand correctly, your position is that credit unions are limited by their size in their ability to provide outstanding local service to their community?
I agree that credit unions, at their heart, are successful because they are community minded and locally run organizations. However, scale does create efficiencies and the ability to provide expanded products and services that not only compete, but in many cases exceed offers provided by the big five.
In many cases, small credit unions are unable to meet the needs of Members and communities due to lending limit restrictions, lack of marketing expertise and executive mind space being spread too thin dealing with regulatory and operational issues. Meridian has balanced their approach by defining their brand around the “difference of being local”. Meridian’s head office is viewed as a support group as opposed to a command and control center for the branch network.
While the details of the legislation are yet to be published, I encourage people to keep an open mind to determine if this is an opportunity to strengthen the credit union system and bring the experience to more Canadians or just political retoric to keep the banking industry on its toes.
Comment by
rleaker — April 28, 2010 @ 9:08 am