Troy praises credit unions for ‘stepping up to the mark’
The government recognises the increasingly important role of the credit union movement in Westmeath and the rest of rural Ireland and wants to implement measures to ensure its future viability.
That was one of messages relayed by Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for Financial Services, credit unions and Insurance to senior figures from a number of credit unions at a round table meeting at the Mullingar offices of the North Midlands Credit Union (NMCU).
Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner after the meeting, Minister Troy said it had been “very informative”.
He also paid tribute to NMCU for its contribution to the communities it is embedded in.
“Essentially it was about engaging with the Credit Union movement to see what things are working well and I suppose see where there are challenges and how we can work with the credit unions to overcome those challenges.
“The credit unions are an integral financial institution in our communities and are supporting communities right throughout the length and breadth of Ireland.
“I think there are 60,000 members in North Midlands Credit Union. We can see its importance and the footprint that it has in our communities.
“We also know from the Fleadh Cheoil, and indeed so many examples, just how supportive the NMCU is to community organisation as well as providing an important financial institution.
New lending limits which come into effect later this year will enable credit unions to significantly increase the number of mortgage and business loans they can offer customers, thus increasing competition in the banking sector.
“We want to build on those reforms in this current government and part of the programme for government is to develop a five-year strategy for the credit union movement recognising the important role that it plays.”
Customer-focused
Minister Troy also paid tribute to NMCU and other credit unions for “stepping up the mark” and ensuring that many rural towns and villages continued to have a facility where people could make financial transactions as a number of the pillar banks have closed branches over the last decade.
“It’s very much customer-focused and about personal interaction with their customers, whereas the larger financial institutions are moving away from a physical presence and a lot more is done online and digitally.
“What was clear from the engagement today is that credit unions want to retain that ethos for the community, in the community, want to be there to help vulnerable people: older people who are afraid to embrace technology, maybe people coming from socially challenging backgrounds who don’t want to embrace technology. The also provide the smaller loans to facilitate people who are on social welfare.
“They can get access and financial stability from their credit union rather than have to access finance from loan sharks.”
Tom Allen, NMCU manager, says that these are “exciting times” for the credit union movement.
“Credit unions are now doing lending and providing services that they never used to do before, particularly, say in the mortgage space – we’ve been inundated with demands for mortgages. The new limits will give us greater scope to do that.
“We have challenges but there’s a lot of good things and positive things happening in credit unions. At the moment, at the credit union here in the north midlands, we have over half a billion euro of assets from our members. That’s a huge vote of trust and confidence by the public at large and our members here in the credit union.
“We’re very positive about the changes made with the last government and very impressed by what the programme of government is laying out to happen over the next number of years.”