ABCUL Awarded Credit Union Trade Association of the Year – UK & Customer Service Excellence Award 2020

Wednesday 17 January 2024

ABCUL has been awarded Credit Union Trade Association of the Year – UK & Business Customer Service Excellence award from the Northern Enterprise Awards 2020.

The Awards reward the hardworking individuals and firms hailing from the region for their innovation and excellence in practice as well as their outstanding overall performance.

“Combining the devotion to going above and beyond for its members with innovation, ABCUL is well on its way to becoming the pre-eminent trade association for credit unions in the main cooperative region of Manchester,” says the Northern Enterprise Awards. “The sense of teamwork and concern for ABCUL’s member credit unions continues to be as strong as ever. Despite the adversities facing the UK economy, ABCUL is staying true to its core mission to serve its members to the best of its ability so that they can each grow and develop to become superior financial services providers.”

Driven by the same collaboration and cooperative values that the organisation was built on, ABCUL’s mission is be the principal, democratically governed representative body of the credit union movement in Great Britain and to provide credit unions with the leadership, services and assistance they require. At the heart of this core mission is a commitment to excellent member service, ensuring that they have the space and opportunities needed to grow and develop.

For example, in 2019, ABCUL led a Town Hall coonsultation to encourage a productive discussion with its member credit unions, other trade associations and relevant stakeholders about the future vision for the credit union sector in Britain over the next five years. In March 2020, the result of this conversation was launched as a Vision 2025 Strategy document which sets out the clear priorities under four different themes – Collaboration, Purpose, Relevance and Sustainability. “ABCUL’s core strategic objective is to deliver on that vision and deliver legislative reform which will allow product and service innovation across the sector,” says ABCUL CEO, Robert Kelly.

Until that point at which organisations are once again able to meet face-to-face safely, ABCUL is continuing to serve its members via digital platforms. Back in March 2020, as the Covid-19 situation changed rapidly ABCUL produced a dedicated page for members on its website to ensure they had all the latest information in once place – in the early weeks this was updated multiple times per day.

To support this and to create a sense of connection and community when many were feeling isolated, ABCUL also supported members through exclusive weekly online meetings. They attracted high attendance from across its membership – from every area of the country and of all sizes and business models. In total there were 3,109 attendances from 132 credit unions across 8 months and 29 meetings.

In Greater Manchester and the surrounding areas, credit unions are doing what they can to keep the industry thriving, joining forces to offer vital credit facilities to residents in the region. Robert added that: “ABCUL will continue to support member credit unions across the country and in the North to ensure customer engagement is high and the credit union sector is seen as providing a consistent lifeline to consumers.”

You can read more about the awards and ABCUL’s win in the Northern Enterprise Awards 2020 Magazine here.