13 May 14
A delegation of credit union managers from Britain is travelling to Detroit this week to take part in a major US credit union conference.
Citi is also participating in the trip and has provided funding for the group to attend the Annual Conference of the Inclusiv. There will be a report compiled following the event with input from all attendees to capture knowledge gathered from the visit. This will be distributed at various events across the country.
Mark Lyonette and Matt Bland from ABCUL are joining the group, which is made up of representatives from credit unions taking part in the Department for Work and Pensions funded Credit Union Expansion Project. They will be accompanied by Tom Sefton, part of the policy adviser team for the Church of England who is working closely with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Task Group on Responsible Credit and Savings.
During the visit, the delegation will hold meetings with the Director of the National Credit Union Administration Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives, the Deputy Director of the CDFI fund and with CEOs from a number of Community Development Credit Unions. They will also take part in field trips and attend a variety of workshops.
The US Inclusiv is celebrating 40 years of helping low and moderate income people achieve financial independence at this year’s conference, entitled Financial Inclusion in Focus: From Vision to Reality.
ABCUL Chief Executive Mark Lyonette said: “We are very grateful to Citi for this generous support that is allowing us to take some our credit union leaders to this exciting event. There is so much that we can learn from credit unions in the United States, where over a third of the population are members and where their success means attractive and responsible financial services are widely available to people of all incomes. We look forward to sharing our learning with the wider sector.”
Barry Roberts from North Wales Credit Union, Carol McHarg from 1st Alliance Credit Union, Karen Bennett from Enterprise Credit Union and Martin Groombridge from London Capital Credit Union were selected to take the trip following an application process which all community credit unions in the Credit Union Expansion Project were invited to take part in.
http://www.abcul.org/media-and-research/news/view/446