Send us a text Swoboda Research Centre's recent paper on credit unions VS community banks explores whether the ads and marketing slogans make banks and credit unions indistinguishable from each other. We sit down with marketing strategist Daniella Russo from MP&Co Marketing Strategists to unpack the everyday language problem: how do you cut through misconceptions and make the benefits obvious? Daniela shares where values help and where they get in the way, why digital design equals brand...

Send us a text The credit union landscape is transforming rapidly across Ireland and Britain. Fresh legislation has created unprecedented opportunities for innovation – yet significant hurdles remain. How can credit unions balance digital transformation with their co-operative ethos? What strategies will attract younger members while serving existing ones? These questions took centre stage at the recent Swoboda Research Conference in Dublin, where experts shared insights and solutions....

Send us a text Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming financial services, with 75% of firms in Great Britain and 54% in Ireland already adopting the technology. For credit unions, this presents both opportunities and challenges as they seek to harness AI while staying true to their co-operative values and member-centric mission. In this podcast episode, Anca explores the role of AI in the credit union sector with four expert guests. David Fagleman, Co-founder and Director of Enr...

Send us a text Collaboration and mergers within the credit union sector may become more prevalent in future as credit unions in Ireland and Great Britain are navigating the challenges of maintaining their local identity while achieving economies of scale. This podcast, with expert commentary from Nick Money of the Swoboda Research Centre and Paul Norgrove, CEO of Serve and Protect Credit Union and Ronaldo Hardy from the USA association NACUSO, tackles the strategic decisions credit unions are...

Send us a textCan 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. Ba...

Send us a textListen 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. T...

Send us a textSeveral responses to this question by credit union leaders:*Rate tart is a term used in banking to describe someone who transfers balances repeatedly, chasing the best possible interest rates on savings. David McAuley, CEO, Donore CU, Ireland " Are our members 'rate tarts'* and leave the credit union, if we pay insufficient dividend? Our members in the main are not big savers. So, while there will be one or two members disgruntled with no dividend and they do tend to be in...

Send us a textPaul Jones and Nick Money update us on the wide list of projects, papers and conferences coming up in the next 12 months at the Swoboda Research Centre.Hear about:New credit union lending projectsSustainable credit unionsUpdates on the Governance ManualNew faces at SwobodaJonathon Moore's views on credit unions Talking Credit Unions with Chris Smith is a regular podcast dedicated to informing credit union practitioners, leaders and opinion formers on variety of industry topics. ...

Send us a textThis podcast captures the views of some financial services industry commentators on the merits and drawbacks of ESAS (Employee Salary Advance Schemes).Guests on this podcast are:Matt Bland, CEO Co-op Credit Union, UKEmily Trant, head of Impact & Inclusion, WagestreamLindsay Melvin, CEO FlexiwageErik Porter, Wellbeing expertHow a Employee Salary Advance Scheme works:Specialist scheme operators, which are usually unregulated businesses, often provide the product as part of a '...

Send us a textThe past two years has been the ultimate stress test for the financial, operational, competitive, and cultural resiliency of credit unions. Leaders have greater depth of insight into the risks facing their credit union and can now better plan for and address those risks, allowing the organisation to focus primarily on longer-term opportunities.Some credit unions are only now emerging from the lockdown to seek new members in a tremendously competitive and digital world. The econo...

Send us a textThis summer saw the publication 'Gambling, Vulnerability and FCA Compliance' (How financial services firms can achieve the best outcomes for vulnerable customers who gamble), by Sharon Collard and Katie Cross at the Bristol University Personal Finance Research Centre. Credit unions are seeing increased levels of gambling activity on members accounts, especially since the pandemic. Many credit unions can conduct more forensic assessment of members accounts following th...

Send us a textThe Save and Sound project is now looking further afield for more credit union memories. The project wants to make sure that the efforts of people who worked to set up and run credit unions in the early days of the movement are not forgotten. The history of British credit unions is a diverse and inspiring one and the project wants to hear from anyone who was involved with a credit union in whatever way. Anyone with any information about early credit unions is e...

Send us a textThe purpose of credit unions is obvious, isn’t it? Well, isn’t it?One of the perceptions about credit unions is that they ‘alleviate poverty’ and I guess many within the Irish & UK credit union movement will accept that perception. I suspect that banks are not perceived as alleviating poverty, by the general public or even bank workers. So, do credit unions alleviate poverty?I spoke to three well known experienced credit union people; Paul Jones, Eileen Halligan & D...

Send us a textThis is podcast is where I look at another mobile 'app' being currently used by some credit unions.In this edition I talk with the enthusiastic Karen Bennett, CEO of the Merseyside based Enterprise Credit Union, about its fairly recent take up member mobile ‘app’ CUApps. Firstly, I spoke with the two young Scots tech entrepreneurs, Declan McGallagy and Jack Alison who founded CU Apps over eight years ago. They tell me how they specialise in premium mobile app and chat...

Send us a textI’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 &a...

Send us a textI'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 cr...

Send us a textThis 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 prox...

Send us a textBooking 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 vie...

Send us a textEarly 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 a...

Send us a textAn 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 ab...