All Wales Credit Union Support Programme - by Sam Dowling

Our work with the Welsh Assembly Government’s flagship funding programme, supporting and promoting Welsh credit unions, is going from strength to strength.

The programme runs from 2010 to 2013 and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Welsh Assembly Government. Over 3 years Welsh credit unions will receive £2.5m of investment to increase awareness of, and access to, their accessible and affordable financial services throughout Wales.   

Working closely with 15 credit unions throughout Wales, The Social Investment Business has been busy providing business support services including business advice and planning and a volunteer and staff training programme, with great results.  Over the last few months we have witnessed the successful merging of 5 credit unions in North Wales, creating a more stable, robust, organisation to better help people in the North of the country.  

Welsh credit unions are well established social lenders, offering good value loans and other trustworthy and reliable financial services to a wide range of savers, including many vulnerable and financially excluded borrowers, helping customers manage their money effectively.

By improving standards of governance, raising the profile of credit unions in Wales and developing business models to help credit unions become self-sustaining financial service providers to all Welsh citizens, particularly those who are financially excluded, we are helping the movement generate increased awareness of their work and to recruit more savers of all ages and social backgrounds to secure the future of Welsh credit unions for the long term.

The  All Wales Credit Union Support Programme was developed following the publication of the Welsh Assembly Government’s first ever Financial Inclusion Strategy: “Taking  Everybody into Account”,  in 2009, which identified credit unions important players in the ongoing battle against financial exclusion.  As part of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, the Assembly Government commissioned research on the size, scope, nature and health of credit unions in Wales from the Cardiff Institute for Co-operative Studies (CICS). This identified 3 key challenges relating to improving  standards of governance and management systems; raising the profile of the credit unions and developing sustainable business models aimed at attracting a wide and economically diverse membership.

In the coming months we will continue to work with the Welsh credit unions to deliver results on these key challenges running in parallel to the Welsh Assembly Government’s recently published Credit Union Action Plan “Raising the Profile: Meeting the Challenges”, and it’s 5 core objectives:  

• strengthening the governance and compliance standards of credit unions in Wales;
• working towards the long-term sustainability of the credit union movement in Wales;
• raising the profile of the credit union movement in Wales by public knowledge and to  increase public awareness;
• achieving a significant growth of credit union membership in Wales, linked to a steady increase in savings, loans made and repaid and the building of sufficient capital assets; and
• supporting credit unions in the delivery financial inclusion initiatives.