Commission calls for mass mergers among credit unions
CHARLIE WESTON PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR – 17 APRIL 2012
Regulators feel that 407 separately owned and run credit unions is far too many.
The move to encourage mass mergers among the lending co-operatives could see their number fall to as few as 250 over the next three years, although no official figure has been put on the number of credit unions.
No mention in the above Independent article of the non-distributable regulatory reserve of 10% of total assets with effect from 1 October 2009 imposed on Credit Unions.
Greg Allen, banking and finance consultant with GDA Consulting comments in 2010
“On closer examination, this is similar to dosing your aunt with arsenic over a long period. She will die from poisoning but there will be no obvious trace to you, the person who administered the poison. The credit union movement is going to die slowly but not obviously. We will be safe from a credit union collapse because there won’t be any credit unions. This is the best risk avoidance of all.”
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Ireland reduces the number of Credit Unions while the UK is expanding the number!!!!!
The Archbishop of Canterbury has vowed to put payday lenders out of business by using the Church to build up Britain’s network of credit unions.
The Church of England has already set up a credit union for its own staff, which will advise the other co-ops on how to expand their reach.
The Archbishop, a former oil industry executive and a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, has pointed out that the Church has 16,000 branches in 9,000 communities – more than the banks. In an interview with Total Politics magazine, he said: “I’ve met the head of Wonga and we had a very good conversation and I said to him quite bluntly ‘we’re not in the business of trying to legislate you out of existence, we’re trying to compete you out of existence.’ He’s a businessman, he took that well.”
Read Full Article The Independent UK
