Any statistics on members shares? Have they increased/decreased, stayed static?

Credit Unions deserve huge credit for the work they do in Ireland.
Manned mostly by volunteers they make credit available to people the banks often won’t touch & if you get into difficulty are very understanding & bend over backwards to accommodate.
If only the same could be said of other financial institutions!!

‘severe lack of demand’??? Seriously? Must make a phone call so!

You mean the Imelda May add didn’t work??? #NotRockin

@M O SÈ – let me educate you a little before you get to high on the “working man” mentality. Credit unions are set up and run by the “working man” no government or investors have any say or involvement in credit unions expect with rules that govern lending. They are run by the people in the area for the people in that area. If the working man pays for a credit union bailout it’s not to assure bonuses or pensions for board members.

I’ve worked for my credit union for 7 years now and never once needed a bail out.

And another thing that bail out that the government offered for credit unions was REFUSED by credit unions as they want nothing to do with them.

Instead all credit unions in Ireland put their hands in their pockets and pooled money into one giant emergency fund for for any time a credit union may need it. IT HAS NOT BEEN TOUCHED ONCE.

Don’t believe everything the government tells you. Approach your local credit union they will tell you out straight the position they are in financially as they have an obligation to the share holders (which are all the members) to inform them of such information.

Of course loans are down . You cannot take out a loan if you have no means to pay it back . As someone who is unemployed , though applying for jobs almost on a daily basis, I certainly have no money to pay back any loan . I am lucky to have €3 in my purse at the end of the week .

@ damien. Yeah that was newbridge credit union. That special manager is a disgrace and no 1 person should earn that an hour. The credit union ran into difficulty through irresponsible lending such as business loans. A handful of the 400 credit unions in Ireland lens business loans which are to unstable due to failing businesses and such. The special manager was put in place by the regulator to make an example of them and to sort out their loan book. The credit union still operated as normal and still does now but the regulator was trying their hardest to get their foot in the door of credit unions and that gave them the perfect opportunity to do so.

I’m not saying all credit unions are perfect and that why the SPS fund was set up as outlined in my previous comment. But newbridge weren’t given a chance to access this fund and correct their errors. Instead a special manager was appointed at that ridiculous charge which the members of the credit union have to foot the bill.

Anything that happens in a credit union the member foots the bill not tax payers or bailouts. The surplus of a credit union that is normally used for dividends and interest rebates is used and then they see if there is enough left to give something back to the members but I doubt there was at €365 an hour!!

This is not good news for credit unions as they are dependant on lending levels staying stable or growing slowly and performing lending (loans being paid back as agreed) to make the bulk of their income. If lending is falling then the opportunity to earn income is reduced and if lending is not performing then they are unable to earn income from the lending that they have.The financial year end in the sector is September and the time between that and AGM’s is stretching out every year which points to more and more issues to be dealt with in advance of the AGM’s

@ Lou Walsh with regards to wages I doubt highly that any staff are on €600 – €1000 a week. You would have to look at your annual report and see the wages paid and divide that by the number of paid staff employed to get an average. Some would earn more than other depending on length of service and stuff.

And about the computer maintenance, it would cost roughly that per year. Sometimes more and sometimes less. You have to remember when you walk into the credit union you only see the teller staff there to serve you. Maybe only a handfull at computers. There could be 20-30 more computers in the back office.

Credit unions are mainly fitted out with pcs from an outside company who charge for every computer they provide and also charge for the software they provide to run accounts. They also charge for maintenance and upgrades and technical support on a quarter basis.

Another company will safe guard the computers with security and server security which backs up all member information and maintenance which is another cost quarterly to every credit union.

@ M O S è

Here you go – http://www.cuda.ie/cuda/documents/CUDApressreleasereCommissioninterimreport141011.pdf

http://www.creditunion.ie/communications/news/2010/title,1002,en.php

The first article is from CUDA which it the credit union development association stating at the very top no one needs a bailout but they accept the governments decision to think that they did.

The second if from the ILCU The Irish league of credit unions fully explaining the credit unions SPS fund which I was talking about in which credit unions pay into a fund to support one another. And credit unions have used the fund I don’t dispute that but they used there own money and not the “working mans”.

I’ve stopped dealing with my credit union, they are crap. I’m Lucky enough to get Loans from my Local BOI branch.

big swing how care.s