By Theresa Witham
If you want to get excited about what credit unions can do in the world, you should get involved with the World Council of Credit Unions. 
WOCCU's Pete Crear
I had the pleasure of hearing Pete Crear, president/CEO of the World Council of Credit Unions, Madison, Wis., speak at CUES Annual Convention Monday in Cancun, Mexico.
He told stories about what WOCCU is doing around the world. The group’s mission is simple: “Quality credit unions for everyone.”
WOCCU works hard to bring the credit union movement to people who don’t have access to other financial institutions--people who live on $2 or less per day, a group that constitutes about two-thirds of the world’s population.
“In developing countries,” Crear explained, “credit unions tend to be a lifeline."
Here are a few examples of what WOCCU is up to:
In Mexico, WOCCU is using PDA technology (developed by Microsoft) and employees on horse or motorbike to bring financial services to people in remote areas. Incidentally, $536 million Ventura County Credit Union, Ventura, Calif., is using the same PDA technology to serve migrants workers in the field.
WOCCU had 17 staff members in Haiti when the earthquake hit in 2010. The focus has shifted to helping the CUs—or caisses populaires, as they are known there—rebuild. WOCCO sent tents and many are still operating out of those tents today.
In Afghanistan there are about 30 Islamic Investment and Finance Cooperatives. Despite the challenges of operating a lending institution in a culture that is not kind to moneylenders and must work within Islamic law, these cooperatives are growing: Membership is up 10 percent in Q1 2011. And 8,000 outstanding loans are worth $7.4 million (U.S.)
Another challenge in Afghanistan was around WOCCU’s two deal breakers: one member, one vote (which is a tough hurdle in non-democratic countries, said Crear) and women must be allowed to fully participate (as members, board members, employees and management). But women have become a big part of the movement there, Crear said. Every CU has at least one woman director, and women manage three institutions.
In Kenya, WOCCU helped farmers switch from a not very profitable tea crop to a much more profitable rice crop by providing the funds that made the switch possible.
It is credit unions in these places and elsewhere around the world that can help lift the $2 a day population into the middle class, Crear said.
One of the challenges for the future, he added, will be keeping those members as they prosper. But when a credit union is a lifeline, it has a greater importance to its members. In an African village, an entire town came out to celebrate the opening of a credit union branch.
While it’s difficult to inspire the same drama for financial institution openings in our developed land where some intersections already sport a branch of some sort on every corner, credit unions can still strive to be that difference-maker in members’ lives—that reason to be a member for life. What is your credit union doing, if not to be a lifeline, at least to stand out in members’ minds? Do you have your own stories to share?
Theresa Witham is a CUES editor.
WOCCU is holding its World Credit Union Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, July 24-27.
