Talking Credit Unions from Swoboda Research Centre – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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Can credit unions truly be the gold standard of ethical finance? Join our enlightening exchange with ethics-man Barry Clavin, as we scrutinize whether these institutions are walking the talk of their cooperative principles. We traverse the complex terrain of credit union ethics, addressing their genuine commitment to these values, and the potential benefits of adopting a unified ethical identity. Are there any lessons to be learnt from landmark policy of the Cooperative Bank. Barry sheds light on the strategic advantages such alignment could offer, setting credit unions apart in a financial industry often marred by scepticism.

Step into the world of credit unions, where Louise  Shields, at Claddagh Credit Union, describes the emotional bonds woven with members and community-centric values. She paints a vivid contrast to traditional banking models.

We explore the manifestation of Hey Credit Unions ethical values through the experienced lens of John Smith, and how it reflects a dedication to a wide array of stakeholders.

Mick McAteer's insights on economic and social justice underscore the importance of authentically presenting ethical standards to attract a diverse member base. 

Rob Harrison explains how the Ethical Consumer Association sees credit unions and emphasises the need to ensure the business is effective and efficient (to its customers or members) as well as considering an ethical dimension. 

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.

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Listen to a conversation with George Hofheimer, the advisor and author of "Banking on the Human Scale." As we navigate the challenges that credit unions face in the digital era, George illuminates the path ahead, offering strategic insight into blending technological investments with the human service that defines credit unions. The traditional face-to-face service is not lost, but rather enhanced as George makes a compelling case for a harmonious merge of the old and the new. This conversation is an essential precursor to the upcoming Manchester Swoboda Credit Union Conference, in November, that aims to unravel the challenge of credit unions and their digital appetite.

At the Swoboda Credit Union Conference, George Hofheimer shares his wisdom, this time focusing on simplifying operations in the digital era.  George expounds on how credit unions can prioritise investments and redefine senior recruitment in the digital age. The digital transformation, laden with complexities, becomes less daunting as George guides us through. George gives us a taste on this digital landscape while retaining that unique human touch.

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.

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I’ve decided to have a closer look at the world of credit union ‘apps’ or Fintech, as some call it. Many of you are aware that a tsunami of helpful apps has arrived at the door of credit unions in the last few years and in many cases transformed how members interact or communicate with their credit union. Some credit unions have willingly adopted the apps available, and some are still considering. Perhaps there is still a little suspicion of earlier tech failures in the Irish & British credit union movements over the years that holds some credit unions back? I don’t know….but I’ve put together a few stories of some of the ‘apps’ in use, and some in development.

In this edition I will be talking to Matt Bland, CEO of the Manchester based Co-op Credit Union, about its first year of taking on the member ‘app’ NIVO. 

Launched in late 2018 as an early-stage spin-out from Barclays Bank, Nivo is already working with large banks, lending brokers, lenders, professional services companies and credit unions who use the platform to significantly improve member sign-ups and service efficiency.

NHS Credit Union state that the NIVO app doubled their member ‘onboarding’ and enabled loan applications to soar to 87% of loans being processed within one day. An impressive list of users have taken up the app.

Listen to the founder, and CEO of NIVO, Michael Common . 

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.

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I've always been amazed at the passion and support for this unique form of credit union education that has seen  over 4,500 credit union employees, volunteers, directors and supporters attending over the years. The EU version has been running several years, with events usually based in the UK. The US version, of the DE event, has been around for almost 40 years.
 
The main purpose of the DE programmes is to "..... is to help established and emerging leaders within the credit union movement understand and leverage credit unions’ unique business model to serve members and communities in new and better ways".

Listen to Lois Kitsch, the former National Programme Director for the National Credit Union Foundation (USA) responsible for the Development Education Programme, explain the impact of this type of immersive education.

Listen to  Marlene Shiels, CEO Capital Credit Union (Scotland), explain the power of the events so far and the successes with many individuals.

Andy Davey, Operations Manager, Co-op Credit Union(UK), describes his DE journey, as a graduate, with both the EU and USA DE programmes.

For information about the EU DE events contact Carole Philbin:  Carol.Phibin@partnerscreditunion.co.uk 

and for the USA events contact Maggie Wolff, Development Education Manager

mwolff@ncuf.coop

Website:  The Development Education (DE) Program (ncuf.coop)

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.

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This is an interviewed with Sir Douglas Flint who is chair of Standard Life Aberdeen, IP Group, the Corporate board of Cancer Research UK and is a trustee of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. He was previously Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings and he has held other roles, notably as a non-executive director of BP.

Clearly, Sir Douglas has many years of experience of board rooms of successful businesses and his Chairmanship of the Just Finance Foundation has placed him in close proximity to credit unions. So, along with his insights into successful board rooms,  I was firstly interested in asking him about his Chairmanship of the Just Finance Foundation.

Then I asked him what changes would you make to boardrooms to make them more effective?
"Boards need to spend more time on what’s important rather that what’s urgent".  He added, There are 5 key questions that we need to think about:

1. Where do we think our industry is going to be in 5 or 10-years’ time?
2. What do we need to do to put ourselves in a position for that change?
3. What resources do we need, human, financial, and technology?
4. What do we think our competitors are doing to position themselves?
5. What do we think people who aren’t our competitors today but do have the capability to be our competitors in the future are doing?

https://www.justfinancefoundation.org.uk/
The Just Finance Foundation runs a project called LifeSavers. This is an innovative, values-based financial education programme for primary schools, teaching children how to manage money wisely. Offering a whole school approach, LifeSavers provides: 

1.  Resources and training for teachers
2.  Savings Clubs: giving children practical experience of handling and saving money
3.  A whole community approach, including parents, credit unions and other community groups 

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.

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Booking is now open for our first CFCFE conference of the year, on Monday 29th March.

Towards New Business Models: great speakers and plenty of group discussion, looking at the 2021 and future external operating context, the importance of building a business model on a clear and agreed purpose, and credit union leader experience of making mergers work.

Join other credit union leaders, directors, suppliers, regulators and policymakers for stimulating ideas and to share your own views, with plenty of opportunities for interaction. Book your place here!
https://cfcfe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/202011_CFCFE22_Social_Impact_Realising_Potential.pdf

What is the issue?

2020 saw a significant acceleration of the digitalisation of our societies and economies. Post-vaccines, most agree there will not be a great reversion to a 2019 way of life.

Alongside impacts of the pandemic, the evolution of fintech and big data technology, such as open banking, will facilitate further significant change in the financial services industry, with uncertain consequence for consumer behaviour.

For UK credit unions, the next 24 months may offer legislative change and widened scope for trading.

Credit union leaders, both executives and directors, need to consider whether their business model is right for this environment. Some credit unions have seen merger as a strategic response to strengthen their organisations, but this is not an easy process to get right.

This conference will consider the external operating context, the importance of building a business model on a clear and agreed purpose, and explore credit union leader experience of making mergers work.

How will the online conference work?

The conference will be presented on Zoom. We are working to deliver an enjoyable and interactive online experience of the conference. Details of how you can ask questions, join in discussion etc. will be sent to attendees nearer the time.

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.

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Early last year I interviewed Matt Bland,  of the Manchester based Co-op Credit Union, as he began his debut year in charge (2020). This is interview asks Matt how was his first year?

After making the interesting swop from being a policy and regulation specialist, at the trade body ABCUL back in 2020, Matt embarked on turning the sleeping giant of the Co-op Credit Union (CCU) into a more nimble and ambitious outfit. Matt was selected for the job from an impressive batch of applicants but no matter how much the CCU directors tested his ability at the interviews, no one could plan for the test of the pandemic! Matt gives a fascinating insight into being a CEO, for the first time, and how to cope with a pandemic.
The Co-op Credit Union (co-operativecreditunion.coop)
https://cfcfe.eu/

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.

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An interview with Robert Kelly CEO at ABCUL (Assoc. of British Credit Unions Ltd).

I was really interested in the news that ABCUL are to launch a Strategic Merger Taskforce. Robert Kelly, CEO at ABCUL, once again appears to tackle subjects that appear sometimes to be difficult to deal with but nevertheless are really of the moment. Credit Union mergers, or transfer of engagements, in the past have typically been a way of saving a struggling credit union from failure, by being absorbed into a healthier partner. However, could two, or more, credit unions join; and become strategically stronger by merging from a position of strength of their combined healthy businesses? 

This new task force should have its work cut out in helping understand what role mergers in boosting the sustainability drive for credit unions. A great deal has been said in recent times about the need for collaboration between credit unions and I know there are collaboration projects out there that are doing well, but I wonder if there is a co-operative way forward, it  could be a jointly owned ‘CUSO’s (credit union service organisations) or in some cases a strategic merger? It has to be said that sometimes, following mergers of any business, scale economies lead to tough outcomes for some stakeholders and I hope the boards of our credit unions are ready for that?

Here's some of the questions I put to Robert:

• Tell us about the Strategic Merger Taskforce?
• What is a ‘strategic merger’ and why is ABCUL taking a role in facilitating this? Is there a lot of interest among ABCUL members?
• If credit unions are doing well, why would they take the risk of merging and fixing something that isn’t broken?
• What makes mergers successful, in your view? And what are the pitfalls?
• Is “merger” misleading? Aren’t the successful examples where it’s really an acquisition, i.e. where a successful leadership team effectively absorbing a new group of members into their existing arrangements?
• Perhaps some CEO's or board directors holding on to their positions, when this might be against their members’ interests? 

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.

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Over the last few years, the importance of flexible, efficient and modern technology has risen up the agenda for many credit unions. 2020 has made this even more pronounced, as the ability of organisation to serve members effectively while staff are remote from members (and each other) has been given a severe test. Sometimes credit unions come to the conclusion that their strategy cannot be delivered with the constraints of their current core processing and accounting system. But replacing this component of the business is daunting and can be compared to major surgery – expensive, painful and risky. Yet still critical to survival – so what to do?

In this podcast you hear from two credit unions specialists that know this well trodden IT road and their insight and advice is both timely and straight forward.  Ralph Swoboda & Todd Proulx.

Ralph Swoboda, the Chair of CFCFE, is also the Managing Director of CUFA Ltd., the Dublin based provider of financial analytics software to credit unions and other mutual financial firms. An attorney by training, he has forty-five years of experience in the USA and international credit union sector, having served as President/CEO of Credit Union National Association (the primary U.S. credit union trade body), as Chairman of the Management Committee of the Association of British Credit Unions, Ltd. (ABCUL), and later as head of International Operations for CUNA Mutual Group. After leaving CUNA Mutual in 2005, Ralph co-founded CUFA Ltd. and has provided consulting and executive-level project management services to credit unions and credit union organisations internationally. Ralph has also served as a director of credit union and co-operative organisations, including CARE USA, US Central Credit Union, and the Filene Research Institute (of which he was one of the founders). Contact Ralph: ralphswoboda@cfcfe.eu 

Todd Proulx, a consultant with vast experience of core system replacement projects, has written a paper for CFCFE on how to approach this vital issue. In ‘When it Hurts More to Stay Than to Leave: Time for a New Core System?‘, Todd offers wise advice on what might drive a credit union to switch providers, how to conduct a robust procurement process and some of the key functionality that a solution needs to be able to support. Todd concludes with the reminder that “a core system should never dictate or limit credit union business strategy.”

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.

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What a year for this agenda. First came shock; and then came shows of support. But they’re only worth a penny if we do not move to meaningful action and concrete change. Change you can see. Change you can measure. And change that makes a material difference to people’s lives. To achieve that, we can’t just speak about one aspect of diversity and inclusion without also understanding the importance of all others, and how they intersect to make up someone’s experiences. But following the killing of George Floyd, much of the push for action in recent months has quite rightly been focused on addressing systematic racial and ethnic inequality.

For me, this is first and foremost a moral question. Not just as a human being, but also as a producer of podcasts for credit unions. I have always believed that credit unions are superb institutions in helping people get in and on in life.

But still too many people, because of their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, background, or circumstance, find themselves unfairly held back. Their route barred, and talents ignored. I believe that no-one should have to experience that. And I believe that credit unions – among many institutions in society – should be best placed to help solve this problem. We are fast, we work in teams, we help people fulfil their potential.

I’ve got an excellent line up of expert speakers to inform and inspire you on this podcast. And let’s be honest, it’s their voices, stories, and insights that you’re tuning in to hear. Not mine. Listen to:

• Robert Kelly, CEO ABCUL
• Marlene Sheils, CEO Capital Credit Union
• Valerie Walwyn-Tait, CEO Planesaver Credit Union
• Karl George MBE, The Governance Forum
• Rob Shearing, CEO Wolverhampton Credit Union
• Kevin Fearon, Chair Wolverhampton Credit Union

Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders, and opinion formers on a variety of industry topics. The podcast is sponsored by the Swoboda Research Centre.