Talking Credit Unions from Swoboda Research Centre

Send us Fan Mail Purpose without delivery doesn’t move the needle. This podcast explores some of the key themes emerging from the Swoboda Research Centre - Autumn Conference in Liverpool. The podcast includes the recording of a conference session featuring Vicky Zuiderent, Jen Lothian and Joss Tasker, who unpacked how credit unions can innovate with confidence, cut through change fatigue, and buil...

Send us Fan Mail 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 o...

Send us Fan Mail 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 t...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 a...

Send us Fan Mail Can 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...

Send us Fan Mail Listen 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 no...

Send us Fan Mail Several 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 no...

Send us Fan Mail Paul 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 projects Sustainable credit unions Updates on the Governance Manual New faces at Swoboda Jonathon Moore's views on credit unions Talking Credit Unions is a regular podcast dedicated to inf...

Send us Fan Mail This 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, UK Emily Trant, head of Impact & Inclusion, Wagestream Lindsay Melvin, CEO Flexiwage Erik Porter, Wellbeing expert How a Employee Salary Advance Scheme works: Spec...

Send us Fan Mail The 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 emer...

Send us Fan Mail This 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...

Send us Fan Mail The 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 cred...

Send us Fan Mail The 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...

Send us Fan Mail This 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 w...

Send us Fan Mail I’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 s...

Send us Fan Mail I'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 pu...

Send us Fan Mail This 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 s...

Send us Fan Mail Booking 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 lea...

Send us Fan Mail Early 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...

Send us Fan Mail An 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,...

Send us Fan Mail Over the last few years, the importance of flexible, efficient and modern technology has risen up the agenda for many credit unions. 2020 has made this even more pronounced, as the ability of organisation to serve members effectively while staff are remote from members (and each other) has been given a severe test. Sometimes credit unions come to the conclusion that their strategy...

Send us Fan Mail What a year for this agenda. First came shock; and then came shows of support. But they’re only worth a penny if we do not move to meaningful action and concrete change. Change you can see. Change you can measure. And change that makes a material difference to people’s lives. To achieve that, we can’t just speak about one aspect of diversity and inclusion without also understandin...

Send us Fan Mail CFCFE have released a report from Dr Olive McCarthy of the Centre for Co-operative Studies at Cork University Business School (and CFCFE’s Advisory Board) on credit union perceptions of the opportunities and challenges for measuring and reporting on social impact – what CFCFE calls ‘the credit union difference’. Olive spoke to staff from 23 credit unions and 11 stakeholder to gath...

Send us Fan Mail Olive McCarthy is an active member of St. Michael's Credit Union, Cork, Ireland. She receives research funding from a wide array of external sources, including government bodies, NGOs and sectoral organisations. She is a member of the Credit Union Advisory Committee, appointed by the Irish Minister for Finance. The cost of accessing small personal loans can be eye-wateringly...