Credit Unions, coops, banks

 

My interview was for the Public Relations Director of Polaroid Credit Union (PCU). I thought it was a labor union not a financial institution. Fortunately, I didn't blow it by revealing my ignorance. It was to become a life-long connection with the movement.

It was easy to promote. All profits were to be returned to the members in terms of better interest rates on loans and savings and/or additional services. I didn't realize that credit unions were co-operatives.

Three years later the management team of PCU was hired by Digital Equipment Corporation to start a credit union. The same philosophy applied. I still didn't realize credit unions were part of the co-operative movement.

However, we did everything we could for members from simple English documents, to investing in the technology of the time.

I wondered why I ever had a bank account when a credit union offered so much more.

When I moved to Switzerland, the only credit union was the UN's, and I wasn't eligible although I debated asking a UN employee to marry me, so I would be eligible. Credit union members form a common bond, professional, geographic, religious, etc.

I missed working for credit unions with their pro-member philosophy. I ended up as international correspondent for Credit Union Times (CUT). Credit unions in different countries had different success stories and different problems such as in the UK where loans were limited to £500, not a big deterrent to the usury rates of the doorstep lenders.

When CUT was sold, I started an e-newsletter for Canadian credit union executives 48x a year with each issue having 20-50 news stories. It was then I realized that credit unions were part of the co-operative movement. www.ica.coop. I'm a slow study.

Coops generate over $2.1 trillion worldwide and employ 280 million people. 

Credit unions can be anything from several village members pooling their resources in an African  village to the billion dollar + Navy Federal or the Canadian VanCity.

Eventually I retired. I still have my American credit union membership. My second best choice is Raiffeisen in Switzerland, and Crèdit Agricole in France both co-perative banks, the next best thing.