What is a Community Bank?

There are around 400 Credit Unions (CU’s) in Britain which together provide responsible savings and loans to over 1 million people and look after over £1 billion in assets.

In 2014 CU’s celebrated 50 years in the UK, yet despite this we are a relative unknown.

Credit unions are:

• Not-for-profit
• Financial co-operatives
• Owned and controlled by its members.

What we are not:

• A trade union
• A poor man’s bank – we offer financial services for all tiers of the local community and can compete with other financial institutions on the products we offer
• Pawn brokers.

Not for profit:

• No big shareholders
• No banker’s bonuses – any profits that are made by a CU are ploughed back into services or paid as a dividend to members
• Some Members say that they see CU’s as the ethical alternative to banks
• And what they like is that their money stays in the local community and helps local people.

Financial co-operatives – a financial institution that is owned and operated by its members:

As a financial cooperative we offer a full range of banking services, including transactional and savings accounts, as well as loans that carry a rate of interest that is highly competitive with other institutions.  We offer online banking, where Members are able to manage their money online, check balances 24/7 and apply for loans.

CU’s owned and controlled by their members:

Once you join a Credit Union, and by maintaining a £1 running balance, you become a voting member of that CU and can have a say in how it is run at our AGM.  Some of our members take up posts on the CU board and take a more active role in shaping the way the CU operated.

Common bond:

All CU’s have a common bond, something that ties all its members together – so for example all our members either live or work in Derbyshire, so it’s a geographical bond, for other CU’s it might be an employment bond where all its members work for the same organisation, or a particular community.