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Credit union is considered as an alternative solution for global poverty and financial inclusiveness for social development. However, to achieve this goal, first and foremost a credit union must be sustainable. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review on the key determinants of sustainability of credit unions and its measurements through comprehensive literature search and assessment based on the PRISMA-P guidelines. The findings reveal standard quantitative measures such as operations of self-sufficiency ratio, financial sustainability score, return on assets and pearl index (two studies qualitatively assessed governance structure and membership rate as measures). Additionally, key factors such as efficiency, loan management factors, deposit mobilization, portfolio at risk, credit risk, regulatory environment, and asset factors are significant determinants of sustainability of credit unions. The findings suggest a great need for complementarity of role and responsible conduct of the key stakeholders (members), staff, management and enabling regulatory environment for sustainable credit union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To illustrate communities of care in conservation, this essay provides three brief examples of campaigns in rural fishing communities in Indonesia. Based on long term fieldwork, we illustrate how the non-profit environmental organization Rare has trained campaign managers to develop community-based programs that promote people's well-being in relationship to their environments and communities through nutrition, financial stability, education, and collective engagement. In numerous campaigns across fishing communities in Indonesia, campaign managers work together with community members, and especially fishers, to develop marine protected areas or managed reserves with access that function as community fisheries, savings clubs or micro-credit unions, and fishery cooperatives in which fishers determine rules and regulations that community members agree upon. These approaches create a network of care that embodies the Indonesian term, semangat [spirit]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having recently passed its first five-year anniversary, the Eurasian Economic Union is still strolling economic shallows determined by commodity dependence and deindustrialisation of postcommunist political economy. Potentially these challenges can be overcome by a new industrialisation effort targeting macroeconomic competitiveness as a comparative capacity of adapting to globalisation. Indeed, while commodity exports currently dominating the mutual trade in the EAEU bound its members by the inherited infrastructure, as well as discounts on oil and gas, manufacturing can do so through value chains, which would also require more sophistication in common economic regimes, particularly concerning technical and financial regulation. A common industrialisation agenda would be helpful here, yet to be efficient in the specific postcommunist context of the EAEU it would have to depart from the existing paradigm and get focused on managing institutional misalignment, eschewing from communist-era grandeur, upkeeping the social sector and promoting private–public partnerships in innovative manufacturing activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit union participation in the consumer lending market continues to grow as an increasing number of consumers and small businesses become members and open accounts. This study investigates the determinants of credit union loan rates during a period of economic expansion in the United States using fourth quarter 2015 data for 5,942 credit unions. Five different interest rate categories are analysed using nine potential loan rate determinants. Results indicate that loan rates tend to be lower as credit union size increases, while high ratios for net charge-offs and operating costs cause interest rates to increase. Opposite to what is expected, loan rates are positively correlated with regional unemployment rates. A possible explanation for this outcome is that weak labour markets are associated with elevated loan delinquency rates and, therefore, greater default risks resulting in higher interest rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is the first to assess whether smartphone apps can be utilised to improve financially capable behaviours. In this study four smartphone apps, packaged together under the title 'Money Matters', were provided to working-age members (16–65 years) of the largest credit union in Northern Ireland (Derry Credit Union). The smartphone apps consisted of a loan interest comparison app, an expenditure comparison app, a cash calendar app, and a debt management app. The assessment methodology used was a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) with the U.K. Financial Capability Outcome Frameworks used to set the context for the assessment. For those receiving the apps (the treatment group) statistically significant improvements were found in a number of measures designed to gauge 'financial knowledge, understanding and basic skills' and 'attitudes and motivations'. These improvements translated into better financially capable behaviours; those receiving the apps were more likely to keep track of their income and expenditure and proved to be more resilient when faced with a financial shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tax derives from subjects' earnings measured in monetary terms, a principle anchored in financial accounting. The canon of equity, especially the vertical form, sometimes referred to as "ability to pay" remains monetary. However, negating conventional horizontal equity, equal taxable incomes often require employment of different economic rationality levels to earn them depending on the profession or sector the tax payer comes from; hence different cognitive energies are required to generate the same taxable income—disapproving the mere "ability to pay" paradigm. From the Gamma Rationality Measure for the credit unions sector that comprises 67% of Kenyan economic livelihoods and using a combination of econometric and Riemann double integral methods, the income consumption rationality function is derived, from which a Cogni-economic Pressure Coefficient is generated for each income level. The coefficient is used to work out a more equitable tax structure from a continuous progressivity tax model, for greater equity, incidentally securing a boost to productivity and economy canons of tax administration—a global lesson, specific for Kenya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the merits of homeless prevention loans offered by a credit union in the UK to the tenants of its housing association partners. Using a theoretical framework informed by the idea that social inclusion and social exclusion are multidimensional and dynamic, with each dimension impacting on all others, the paper examines the potential impact of loans of this type on both housing tenure and financial inclusion. The paper provides a rare case study of a credit union in the disciplines of accounting and financial management. This paper provides important insights for credit unions, housing associations and local councils. Local councils may work with credit unions to promote financial wellbeing for social housing tenants. People at risk of eviction appear to have a greater inability to repay loans than a credit union's regular membership. However, many recipients do repay loans and their repayments permit the credit union to help others who are also vulnerable to eviction. Spreading the cost of supporting people at risk of eviction through local authority grants to credit unions, or through local authorities' underwriting of losses created by such groups, provides a means to share the risk of financial initiatives that prevent housing exclusion and promote financial inclusion. The authors are an academic and a credit union manager who was previously a housing officer for a local council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Savings have long been an essential source of funding for credit. Whether in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia or Latin America, community-based financial institutions have relied on deposits to make financial services accessible to moderate-income borrowers. Despite the foundational role savings and loans have had in financial sector development, emerging markets have largely overlooked the important role these institutions can have in providing shelter credit in their own contexts. Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs) in the Republic of Kenya illustrate the potential model for deposit-based lending to deliver housing finance for many of the country's underserved prospective borrowers. This study draws upon the experiences of several savings and loan associations in the industrialized world with applications towards improving the Kenyan SACCO model that provides the most extensive credit union loans on the African continent. The article concludes community finance institutions merit strong consideration towards helping overcome the housing finance sector underdevelopment too often experienced in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how firms decide whether to continue an existing relationship or switch the vendor of outsourced services. Because of incomplete contracts and relationship-specific investments, client organisations may face switching costs, which in some cases may be large enough to render vendor switching an unattractive option. Based on an extensive review of the literature, we develop hypotheses about relationship-, firm-, and market-specific determinants of switching costs. We then develop an econometric model to identify those determinants and their relative importance and estimate the magnitude of switching costs. In the empirical study, we observe accounting data of 1318 US credit unions (CUs) and follow their IT outsourcing choices over 11 years. We find that the largest portion of switching costs is due to relationship- and firm-specific factors, while market-specific variables are much less important. Our estimates suggest that average switching costs account for one-third of the average annual expenditure for professional services. We further highlight that the average hides substantial heterogeneity. Switching costs of CUs that decide to switch vendors are about 50% lower than those of CUs that stay. Looking more closely at stayers, our most conservative estimate of the lock-in effect, i.e., the difference in switching costs of deliberate and non-deliberate stayers, is equivalent to about 70% of the average annual expenditure for professional services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a case study from Malaysia, the Credit Union Malaysia, to illustrate how the capability framework and institutions have practical value within the scope of microcredit, and how the constraints that the disadvantaged face can be relaxed through the use of microcredit. The capability approach provides an analytical framework to describe how a microcredit scheme can overcome the problems posed by conversion factors in order to enlarge the space of capabilities available to individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the overall profitability efficiency (PE) of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Latin America. The PE of each MFI in the study is broken down into two components: pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency. One data envelopment model is used to analyse each component. Each MFI was labelled as either a bank, cooperative and credit union, nonbanking financial institution or non-governmental organization, and then the analysis was performed on each separate group. The results suggest that, on average, banks are the most efficient MFIs; while NGOs are, on average, the least efficient MFIs. On average, all 4 groups are more pure technically efficient than scale efficient. Banks, nongovernmental organizations, nonbanking financial institutions, cooperatives and credit unions all seem to have problems with scale efficiency. Many MFIs seem to be operating on the increasing returns to scale frontier and are in a more favourable position for expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use the consumer finance monthly national survey to demonstrate that credit unions (CUs) in the United States did little to help consumers obtain a home equity line of credit (HELOC) during the recent financial crisis. Our results hold after including a two-stage regression structure using the availability of CUs as the identifying instrument, as well as employing a Heckman correction procedure to adjust for sample selection bias. We find that during the financial crisis, CUs were no more likely than other depositary institutions to extend HELOCs either in areas experiencing housing price declines or to lower income households. Our results provide an empirical counterpoint to those who have lauded CUs for providing liquidity during times of crisis or for serving consumers who would otherwise be challenged to obtain funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade credit is one of the most flexible short-term funding sources for companies and covers a significant part of the financial resources used by firms. Trade credit received makes available financial resources to achieve other economic objectives of the company. The managerial decision to increase or reduce trade credit offered and received or the collection and credit period is influenced by the company's financial performance. The aim of this paper is to analyse the correlation between trade credit receivable/payable and collection/credit period and six measures of financial performance and find if these variables have any impact on the decision to use trade credit. To achieve this aim, we used a sample of 958 European firms from the construction sector which were analysed using correlation and OLS regression, separately on developed and emerging countries. The main results found are: trade credit offered/received is directly correlated with return on equity and firm size, and inversely correlated with return on assets; trade credit offered is directly correlated with current liquidity and long-term banking loans; trade credit received is directly correlated with liquidity ratio and inversely correlated with current liquidity and long-term banking loans; and trade credit offered is inversely correlated with liquidity ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit unions differ in the types of financial services they offer to their members. This article explicitly models this observed heterogeneity using a generalized model of endogenous ordered switching. Our approach captures the endogenous choice that credit unions make when adding new products to their financial services mix. The model that we consider also allows for the dependence between unobserved effects and regressors in both the selection and outcome equations and can accommodate the presence of predetermined covariates in the model. We use this model to estimate returns to scale for U.S. retail credit unions from 1996 to 2011. We document strong evidence of persistent technological heterogeneity among credit unions offering different financial service mixes, which, if ignored, can produce quite misleading results. Employing our model, we find that credit unions of all types exhibit substantial economies of scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the efficiency of Brazilian credit unions through DEA and its relationships with classification groups using Tobit regressions. We applied a traditional analysis model for banks and another approach for cooperatives. We also analyzed the productivity, efficiency and technology changes by applying an Adjacent Malmquist. The main results indicate that the link between cooperative members is not determinant for efficiency; nevertheless, free admission cooperatives tend to be less efficient than those that have admission restrictions. It is also noteworthy that the contrasting results generated by the models point to the need for specific models that consider outputs relevant to cooperatives. RESUMEN Examinamos la eficiencia de las cooperativas de crédito brasileñas a través del análisis envolvente de datos (DEA - Data Evolopment Analysis) y sus relaciones con los grupos de clasificación, usando las regresiones Tobit. Aplicamos el modelo analítico tradicional y otro enfoque para las cooperativas. También analizamos la productividad, eficiencia y cambios tecnológicos, en base al índice Adyacente de Malquist. Los resultados más importantes indican que la eficiencia no es un factor determinante del vínculo existente entre los miembros de las cooperativas. Sin embargo, las cooperativas con admisión libre, suelen ser menos eficientes que aquellas que imponen restricciones a su admisión. También es de interés mencionar que los resultados contrastantes generados por los modelos señalan la necesidad de contar con modelos específicos que tomen en cuenta resultados importantes para las cooperativas. RESUMO O presente trabalho estudou a eficiência das cooperativas de crédito brasileiras, através da DEA e suas relações com grupos de classificação, usando as regressões Tobit. Foi empregado um modelo de análise tradicional para os bancos e outra abordagem para as cooperativas. Também foram analisadas a produtividade, a eficiência e as mudanças tecnológicas, com o uso do índice Adjacent Malmquist. Os principais resultados indicam que a vinculação entre os membros cooperados não é um fator determinante para a eficiência; no entanto, as cooperativas com admissão livre tendem a ser menos eficientes do que aquelas com restrições à admissão. Também cabe ressaltar que os resultados divergentes, gerados pelos modelos, indicam a necessidade de modelos específicos que estudem resultados relevantes para as cooperativas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the disclosures made on English credit unions’ websites. Credit unions without a website are presumed to be small. Community credit unions with websites tend to offer basic services with a limited range of products that may appeal to poorer members of society. Occupational credit unions appear more likely to have a greater range of products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines how successive UK governments’ policies first created a three-tier system of credit unions and then posited credit unions as alternatives to payday lenders. The three-tier framework is used for an analysis of loans offered on credit union websites. The findings indicate that while the first two tiers of credit unions now offer loans to people who have not saved with them previously, they do so in ways consistent with credit unions’ original character, rather than in ways that replicate commercial payday loans. The other tier of credit unions appears unable to offer such loans. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Do unions really matter in China? Using a dataset containing more than 110 thousand Chinese private manufacturing firms, this paper is the first attempt to examine how unions' bargaining power affects firms' capital structures. We find that: (1) the firms' debt levels are often positively associated with their unions' bargaining powers; (2) when a firm is in financial distress, the management is more likely to issue more debt to strengthen its bargaining power against the union and increase its residual income; (3) compared with long-term debt, short-term debt is a better option for the management to increase its bargaining power and residual income. Our research indicates that the unions of private Chinese firms are an important policy instrument for the management rather than useless decorations, which provides valuable insights for us to understand the employee–employer relations and firms' capital structures in emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous studies show that a variety of institutional and market variables influence cross-sectional variation in the interest rates that credit unions charge on loans. This study examines the behavior of loan interest rates using nationwide credit union data for the fourth quarter of 2009 in the United States. Results from this sample of more than 6,700 individual credit unions corroborate earlier research indicating that credit union competition tends to suppress loan rates and that economies of scale exist at these financial intermediaries. In contrast to prior studies, however, credit unions with higher net worth ratios are found to charge higher interest rates on loans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the Special Issue. It reviews the response of financial institutions to the global financial crisis in the provision of loan and equity finance to SMEs, and highlights the emergence and role of alternative forms of finance, including crowdfunding, microfinance and credit unions. The paper concludes that any continued constraint in the supply of and effective demand for finance for the SME sector will have significant implications for the overall performance of economies in both developed and developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Small firms continue to experience difficulty accessing adequate finance from formal external sources, notwithstanding many and varied institutional and policy initiatives introduced to address this seemingly perennial problem. Underpinning research indicates that information asymmetry is the principal reason for the finance gap, particularly for young firms. The aim of legislation introduced in the UK in 2012 is to utilise the credit union sector to increase the amount of new lending to SMEs. The rationale for this legislative change arises because credit unions typically operate within a defined geographic region wherefrom they can compile detailed local knowledge of small businesses and be therefore uniquely placed to minimise information asymmetries thereby reducing the funding gap for small firms. Despite this perceived advantage, credit unions have been reluctant to take advantage of this legislative, and therefore lending by credit unions to SMEs has been negligent to date. We investigate the reasons for this lack of engagement in SME lending by interviewing the chief executives of five credit unions in Scotland. Our findings reveal that the CEOs of the credit unions are reluctant to lend to SMEs at present as they are uncomfortable with the level of risk associated with lending to a sector of which they have little experience or expertise. Furthermore, credit unions will need to offer attractive interest rates to compete with high street banks and an increasing number of microcredit providers. Policy makers need to better understand the structure and function of credit unions before assigning a greater role in SME lending. It is too early to say whether credit unions can play a significant role in SME lending, and our evidence suggests that structural issues must first be resolved before they become an established presence in the SME lending ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the firm size distribution of US banks and credit unions. A truncated lognormal distribution describes the size distribution, measured using assets data, of a large population of small, community-based commercial banks. The size distribution of a smaller but increasingly dominant cohort of large banks, which operate a high-volume low-cost retail banking model, exhibits power-law behaviour. There is a progressive increase in skewness over time, and Zipf’s Law is rejected as a descriptor of the size distribution in the upper tail. By contrast, the asset size distribution of the population of credit unions conforms closely to the lognormal distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article assesses the future of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest movements, focusing on the notion of participatory democracy in light of the 1962 manifesto Port Huron Statement. Topics include the importance of class divisions and class struggle in inspiring political activism, the role of OWS in promoting social democratization, and the movement of funds into community credit unions. Also addressed are a campaign against student debt obligations, growing labor union actions, and the fiscal problems facing the U.S. government.

Small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) are commonplace in many developing economies. SMFEs often face several challenges, with access to finance frequently being cited as a key hurdle. This study aimed to evaluate the access that SMFEs in The Gambia have to microfinance, and to determine strategies for improving the delivery of these services. Data show that most SMFEs have decent access to deposit accounts, but limited access to credit. While cooperative credit unions and other non-financial institutions have been providing microloans to SMFEs, access to such financial services could be improved. Six strategies to do so are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Not having access to mainstream financial services, such as a bank account or a credit card, can lead to a variety of social and economic exclusions. In a number of countries, particularly Ireland, Spain, Canada and the UK, credit unions— member-owned financial co-operatives—play a significant role in reaching under-served and excluded communities, as well as providing ‘safe’ avenues for savings and credit. Yet many credit unions are facing financial and operational problems. This article looks at the experience of Welsh credit unions. The research has implications for policy development and government–credit union relations in Wales and further research on credit unions and financial inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we develop a methodology to estimate production functions characterized by multiple inputs and multiple outputs. Aggregate output is estimated assuming a piecewise-linear production possibility set and by measuring distance to the boundary using nonparametric techniques. The parameters of the production function are then estimated in a second-stage using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). The primary advantage of this approach is the ability to measure the output aggregate nonparametrically. The approach developed in this article is applied to estimate credit union production. An alternative approach developed by Vinod (1968) specifies an extended Cobb-Douglas equation and estimates the parameters using canonical correlation. Our new approach is compared to Vinod's canonical correlation approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Case studies in select large cities have found that fringe services, including payday lenders, check cashers, pawn brokers, and money transmittal companies are more geographically accessible to predominantly minority neighborhoods while traditional banks are more accessible to white neighborhoods. However, many analyses are bivariate rather than multivariate and do not disentangle the influence of neighborhood socioeconomic status from that of race. Furthermore, the fringe services industry contends that market factors, such as zoning, arterials, population base, and commercial activity influence location. This study employs geographic information systems (GIS) and multiple regression to untangle the spatial relationship between minority communities and traditional and fringe banks in four small-to-moderate-sized metropolitan areas. We find that, though market factors are indeed powerful determinants of fringe bank location, there are nonetheless persistent ethnic effects in two of the four cities and these effects cannot be attributed to factors correlated with a large minority presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using binomial logistic analysis, the authors analyze data on 222 credit unions (CUs) drawn from the CU industry in Ghana in the 2008 financial year and find that CUs that have larger size of management, lower repayment performance, no delinquent loans over 30 days, better liquidity positions, and have been in the CU business for a long time, are more likely to adopt group lending. The findings of this study also show that the gender structure of a CU does not influence its group lending decision. The authors argue that CUs adopt group lending to improve their loan repayment performance, consistent with the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the current backdrop of deteriorating economic and financial conditions, the authors consider recent trends and current prospects for credit unions in Great Britain. Although credit unions have experienced solid membership and asset growth, there are clouds on the horizon. Bad debts and loan arrears are on the rise and may be linked to recent legislative amendments and the increasing use by government of credit unions as a mechanism to achieve its financial inclusion goals. Whatever the reason, the deterioration in the loan book needs to be quickly addressed, or it will ultimately result in either more government bailouts or a stream of failing credit unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations' development of social capital and their decision to give back to society are becoming increasingly important to the business of managing organizations as much more than profit-driven entities. This article focuses on the rationale for an Australian-Canadian study on employees' involvement in social capital initiatives and the communication management of these initiatives. As employees are key stakeholders, they play a vital part in achieving organizational goals. This study, a work in progress, highlights an in-depth, qualitative analysis of two organizations—one in Canada and one in Australia—committed to funding community projects as part of their corporate social responsibility development and commitment. The importance of a qualitative study that focuses on subjective components of social capital is that it develops understanding of employees' attitudes, feelings, and viewpoints. It also begins to investigate why employees might/might not be committed, to organizations' social capital initiatives. Using an interpretative analysis lens, an understanding of the moral, relational, and communication dynamics is explored. Questions surrounding concepts such as the moral fiber of social capital are highlighted and critiqued in the context of community engagement and what organizations' social capital investments mean as part of their responsibility to society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the foundations of cooperative identity and how it is constructed by the organization. More specifically, our research focuses on a financial cooperative in the simultaneously emerging and consolidating cultural sector. The originality of this article lies in the methodology used - textual analysis. We use the Economies of Worth model developed by Boltanski and Thevenot (2006), which accounts for a plurality of legitimate forms of evaluation used in the processes of critique and justification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a baseline study of the historical performance of 34 rural and community banks (RCBs), 27 credit unions (CUs), and 2 savings and loans companies (S&Ls), which are licensed microfinance institutions in Ghana, for future comparisons. The study also investigated their potential for long-term survival. The RCBs and CUs were drawn from five political administrative regions. We found that RCBs and CUs have done reasonably well. Regional differences, however, exist in the performance of both RCBs and CUs, and there are significant differences in performance of RCBs vis-a-vis CUs. Both have good potential for long-term survival, but CU appears to be better positioned. We identified disparate levels of performance and future potential between the two S&Ls studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the implementation of a large-scale information systems (IS) infrastructure called Standard Information System (SIS) project within the credit union movement in Ireland. It explores the difficulties and contradictions associated with information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled organisational integration. It argues that the enthusiasm for facilitating IS innovation on organisational issues has been largely unarticulated. It emphasizes that the political nature of the change process on institutional arrangements for governing the said project were not well suited to manage the risk associated with such an enterprise.

The aim of this article is to critically assess the impact of government funding upon the growth of credit unions in the United Kingdom (UK) in light of the unprecedented level of financial support provided by the Labour government since 1997. The article begins by defining a credit union and commenting upon their importance towards the reduction of financial exclusion. The article challenges the findings of several studies that have determined that external funding has limited the development of credit unions. This is illustrated by the use of four case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social workers have always been directly concerned with the impact of poverty on the lives of service users. Yet practical ways of making a difference to these circumstances have diminished, rather than strengthened over the past twenty years. This paper considers recent developments in credit union services, drawing on research carried out in Wales. It argues that, both in terms of convenient saving and affordable credit, such unions now provide new ways in which help can be offered to least well off communities. A critically engaged social work, the paper suggests, needs to re-engage with such everyday tools for making a difference in the lives of those who most need such assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It can be suggested that there is major variation between the credit union movements in Ireland and the United Kingdom. This is despite both movements being late starters in international terms (O'Connell 2005). Credit unions in some parts of the world have evolved into highly successful financial providers, offering a huge array of products and services. It can therefore be argued that, in order for the UK's credit union movement to become more significant in the financial market, it needs to compete more effectively with other financial institutions whilst maintaining a hold on its philanthropic ethos. The purpose of this article is to reflect upon empirical work conducted in Ireland on this subject. The central aim of that research was to determine how the UK movement can, as the movement in Ireland has, maintain its values and become viable. The research we conducted appears to suggest that the key to a successful movement is achieving a balance between these seemingly competing interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nested analysis of variance is used to identify the sources of variation in performance, measured by growth of membership and growth of assets, for a large sample of US credit unions. The analysis reveals that sector effects (geographic, common bond and charter type) account for only relatively small proportions of the variation in performance. This raises doubts as to whether credit unions are likely to benefit much from competitive repositioning at sector level (by changing their charter type or common bond designation). It may be that the perceived benefit derived from such manoeuvrings is greater than the actual benefit, or it may be that the large number of credit unions seeking a more permissive operating environment has ended up negating any potential gain in performance across the sector as a whole. In contrast to the limited role identified for sector effects, individual credit union effects explain a large proportion of the variation in performance. This suggests that decisions made by individual credit unions with respect to staffing, governance and product portfolio, as well as philosophy and ethos, play an important role in explaining the heterogeneity in credit union performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit Unions (CUs) are financial co-operatives owned and controlled by their members; in the United States they operate both on state as well as on a national level and are in direct competition with retail high-street banks. In this study we use published data for six key financial figures from ten states in the US and present short to mid-term extrapolations. An Expert Forecasting Support System, selecting via a competition among classic extrapolative techniques, has been employed in order to prepare one-year as well as five-years ahead forecasts. The results surface significant statistical evidence of: (a) merging across CUs, and (b) blooming of all key financial figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperatives have been promoted in many developing countries including Fiji to build harmonious societies addressing issues such as unemployment and housing shortages and as a means of creating income generating activities. It is designed to be an easy method of development in these countries. However, in majority of cases these efforts resulted in failure. This study demonstrates that one of the main reasons for failure was inadequate planning. The ideas were thrust upon the people without first preparing them fully about the ideas, concepts and principles of cooperatives. This study attempts to analyze the key factors that seemed to contribute toward successful running of cooperatives. The views and opinions of cooperators helped to develop useful prescriptions. The issues identified may be relevant to those starting or managing cooperatives in Fiji and elsewhere. It was found that in some cases, for example the Fiji Nursing & Associates and Fiji Police Credit Unions, the cooperatives were successful because they followed the credit union philosophies and procedures meticulously. The credit union increased awareness of members by visiting branch offices, conducting meetings, discussions, and keeping in touch through newsletters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a financial co-operative, owned and managed at a local level, can have a positive impact on financial exclusion. Member-owners of the co-operative are able to access easy saving products, take advantage of affordable loans, and develop transferable skills working as volunteers at the strategic and community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government has been actively encouraging the development of credit unions to help the financially excluded. However, rather than stimulating credit union development, government grants can erode the community self-help ethos on which credit unions are founded. Policies should be formulated which encourage credit union development based on a membership drawn from a cross-section of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a speech by Irish politician John Hume, delivered at the Bert Mullen Inaugural Lecture at Glasgow University in Scotland on October 20, 2005. Hume discusses the impact of key players on the credit union movement and their influence on its development. In addition, Hume tackles the implementation of their principles that ensured the recognition of the credit union as a successful financial co-operative.

The article deals with credit unions as the practice of political theology. It suggests that political theology should be attentive to the unions' economic, social and spiritual value. One reason is that they are born as practical responses to poverty and marginalization by those who lived and worked in poor communities. Another is that credit unions are worked examples of the kind of political theology called for in current debates in which intermediate institutions disrupt the imperialism of the capitalist market economy.

Today US credit unions operate within a highly competitive financial market place. Set against this competitive operating environment, the present study employs stochastic frontier analysis to evaluate the performance of large credit unions (assets greater than $50 million) over the period 1993 to 2001. Although credit unions may share a common co-operative philosophy, differences between credit unions are also apparent across a range of operational, structural and locational characteristics (environmental conditions). The impact of these different environmental influences is modelled in two ways. One assumes that environmental factors affect the efficiency with which the production process is operated, while the second assumes that the environment affects the production process itself. Net and gross cost efficiency measures are obtained for both models, with the differences between these measures for a specific credit union being viewed as the impact that environmental variables have on the inefficiency of that credit union. In addition, if it is assumed that the main environmental factors are accounted for in the modelling, then a credit union's net efficiency measure may be interpreted as a measure of managerial performance when operating in equivalent environments. The analysis revealed that different environments (the age of the credit union; the potential for expansion within the existing common bond; whether the credit union has the option of expansion through the addition of select employee groups; whether the credit union is state or federally regulated; whether insurance is provided at state or federal level; as well as regional characteristics such as per capita income and the level of unemployment) account for much of the variability in cost efficiency between credit unions and once credit unions are placed in broadly equivalent operating environments only marginal differences are apparent in their managerial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyse the Government's policy towards the availability of affordable credit in the United Kingdom (UK). The authors discuss the changing nature of the consumer credit market and illustrate how this has partly contributed to an increase in personal debt, financial exclusion and over-indebtedness. The article assesses several recent initiatives aimed at limiting these problems and improving access to affordable credit. In particular, the paper investigates the impact of the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU or the Unit), reform of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA 1974 or the Act) and the promotion of credit unions. The authors conclude that the one way in which access to affordable credit can be improved is by enacting legislation, similar to the Community Reinvestment Act 1977 (CRA 1977) in the United States of America (US). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial services and sources of credit available to poor families affect the rate at which families can be financially empowered through building assets. This paper provides background information on financial services, including credit sources, which are available for low-income people and communities. Also discussed arc policies affecting financial markets and promising innovations in delivering affordable financial services to low-income families. Implications for social work education, practice and advocacy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent government pressure and aspirations within the industry itself to improve financial stability, have seen credit unions pursue economies of scale to achieve this objective. This presented an opportunity to test the validity of this strategy. However, this study is uncommon, as it utilized the credit union population as the unit of analysis, rather than a sample, prevalent in other research. As a consequence this overcomes difficulties associated with multiple testings, and other statistical problems present in some other previous studies. By drawing upon two measures of operational efficiency, viz. operating costs to income and operating costs to total assets, inconclusive evidence of scale economies was found. While clear efficiency improvement occurred in moving from small to medium sized organisations, less compelling was the evidence of economies of scale in larger credit unions. Although the article followed a conventional cross-sectional methodology by examining performance at a moment in time, the study also adopted a longitudinal case study approach, by examining over time the efficiency of a large credit union. Finally, the measure used, inclusion or exclusion of outliers, and the operational efficiency ratio chosen, all effect the outcome, and either showed evidence of economies or diseconomies, of scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]