Credit union
Member-owned cooperatives offering banking services with a community focus.
Members may deposit or borrow money, and credit unions can offer services like savings accounts, credit cards, and online banking.[1] A credit union is a cooperative financial institution that is owned by its members and operates on a not-for-profit basis.[1] In various African nations, the term SACCO, which stands for "savings and credit co-operative," is the common name for a credit union.[1][2]
Quick Facts
- Type
- Financial cooperative institution
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Modern credit union history dates from 1852, when Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch consolidated learning from two pilot projects into the first recognized credit unions.[3] Samuel Jurkovič established "Spolok Gazdovský" in 1845, and this entity is recognized as Europe's earliest cooperative financial institution.[4][5] Members of that cooperative could obtain low-cost loans, which were funded through the regular savings they contributed.[4] The initial rural credit union was created by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen in 1864 in Heddesdorf, a location that is now part of Neuwied, Germany.[3]
During the 1940s, the Catholic Church promoted credit unions in Latin America, leading to their swift expansion in the following two decades.[6] The global membership of credit unions reached 375 million in 2018.[7]
What the cited sources add
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario states that credit unions offer many of the same services as a bank, such as cash deposits, investments, and mortgages.[8] In Ontario, insurable deposits held with credit unions and caisses populaires are protected by the Deposit Insurance Reserve Fund up to a maximum of $250,000.[8] A 2014 United Nations' Global Census on Co-operatives reported over 200,000 banking/credit cooperatives in the world, with 700 million members.[2] The source "Payments That Matter: SACCOs In Africa" notes that SACCOs were invented in Germany in 1846.[2]
The same source states that the most common sources of formal credit were found to be SACCO loans and mobile bank account loans.[2] The PERNÝ article also states that the cooperative was dissolved in 1851, and all its members were paid out.[5]
References
- Wikipedia, "Credit union" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "12 U.S.C. § 1752(1), CUNA Model Credit Union Act (2007)", National Credit Union Administration; O'Sullivan, "Economics: Principles in action", Prentice Hall, 2003, p. 511; "Payments That Matter: SACCOs In Africa". (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Payments That Matter: SACCOs In Africa".. facts only, no text reused. obopay.com
- Wikipedia, "Credit union" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: J. Carroll Moody & Gilbert C. Fite. The Credit Union Movement: Origins and Development 1850 to 1980. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., Dubuque, Iowa, 1984; J. Carroll Moody & Gilbert C. Fite. The Credit Union Movement: Origins and Development 1850 to 1980. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., Dubuque, Iowa, 1984; Singh, "Bank Regulations", Discovery Publishing House, 2009, p. 199 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Credit union" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: PERNÝ, Lukáš. Samuel Jurkovič, slovenský národný buditeľ a zakladateľ družstevníctva. In: DAV DVA (2019), https://davdva.sk/samuel-jurkovic-slovensky-narodny-bu; TASR: Gazdovský spolok v Sobotišti bol prvým úverovým družstvom . In: SME (2010), https://myzahorie.sme.sk/c/5228907/gazdovsky-spolok-v-sobotisti-bol-prvym-uver (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- PERNÝ, Lukáš. Samuel Jurkovič, slovenský národný buditeľ a zakladateľ družstevníctva. In: DAV DVA (2019), https://davdva.sk/samuel-jurkovic-slovensky-narodny-bu. facts only, no text reused. davdva.sk
- Wikipedia, "Credit union" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Balkenhol, "Credit Unions and the Poverty Challenge", International Labour Organization, 1999, p. 45–47 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Credit union" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Slide 1"; "Credit Unions Globally" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Deposit Insurance and Credit Unions", Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario. facts only, no text reused. fsrao.ca
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Credit union (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Banking And Finance
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced