League of credit unions in talks with parties forming Government

Frustration that its asset base of €14 billion is not being used to fund small and medium enterprises or social housing, is expected to be expressed at the AGM of the Irish League of Credit Unions this weekend.

The league, which has held meetings with Fine Gael and other potential government parties in recent days, has said it is prepared to co-operate with “whatever structures the incoming Government wishes to put in place”, in order to see its funds used for a wider range of social services than currently sanctioned by the Central Bank.

The keynote address is to be given by President Michael D Higgins and comes at a time when the league is undertaking a strategic review of its future operations.

The league has an ageing membership base and is keen to get into financial products more in demand by younger savers, such as home and business loans.

The potential for the movement to make additional contributions towards the broader community through investing in social housing and small businesses is not only immense but necessary for the greater good, league president Brian McCrory is expected tell the conference.

Speaking to The Irish Times in advance of the AGM, Mr McCrory said the movement’s ultimate aim is to provide a full range of ethical financial products is done by cooperatively owned financial organisations across the world. “We have been meeting on this with the parties attempting to form a government and spoke to Fine Gael just recently” he said.

Mr McCrory, who is just back from a meeting of the World Council of Credit Unions in Korea, said many credit unions abroad provided housing finance and finance for small business as a matter of course.

He said the offer to fund “much needed” council housing was still on the table and had been repeated in discussions with political parties in recent days. Mr McCrory . But he said “we are currently awaiting a response from Government to these proposals”.

In a new discussion document to be debated at the conference the league will outline how providing small and medium enterprises with necessary support to “foster a culture of growth optimism and dynamism” is a national objective.

Proposals contained in the document include creating a central fund, backed by a State guaranteed bond, in which individual credit unions could invest.

Mr McCrory said both the enterprise and social housing proposals are very closely aligned to the core values of the credit union movement and are “rooted in the communities that they deserve”.

The Annual Global Conference of the World Council of Credit Unions is to take place at the newly refurbished Waterfront venue in Belfast in July.