Bradford District Credit Union Reaches Milestone of 10,000 Members

Wednesday 27 March 2024

Bradford District Credit Union (BDCU) recently celebrated its achievement of reaching 10,000 members with an event at Bradford City Hall where the Mayor of West Yorkshire was in attendance.

At the celebratory event, BDCU also honoured its first member, Sean McNulty, who has been a member of the credit union for more than 30 years, and its 10,000^th member. The credit union’s 10,000^th member, Melissa Bailey, remarked that she’d been thrilled to be accepted for a loan after years of being unable to borrow and she said she was excited to start saving with BDCU.

“We were delighted to welcome Mayor Brabin to our offices and let her see first-hand the positive impact the funding from her office has on the people of Bradford, including Sean, our original member” said Katie Hurrell, Bradford District Credit Union CEO.

Katie continued, “It was exciting to hear that the Mayor supports our call for more collaboration between credit unions in West Yorkshire, in order to benefit as many communities in the region as possible.”

The Mayor’s office has funded two initiatives to assist the credit union in its venture to improve the financial wellbeing of members. Funded by the Mayor’s Cost of Living Emergency Fund, the first initiative is BDCU’s Cost of Living Loan, which brings support and financial relief to those in need during the ongoing cost of living crisis by enabling them to take out an affordable loan to help with everyday expenses.

The second initiative funded by the Mayor is the organisation’s UniformSavers project, which helps single parent families pay for new school uniforms and develop healthy savings habits by offering them a £100 incentive if they save on three separate occasions before July 2024. Together, the two initiatives will help 600 local households across the district.

Katie reflected on the credit union’s work and said: “There is much more work to do over the coming years to help our local communities overcome the obstacles posed by the cost of living crisis but by continuing to work hard for those communities and by making the best use of the grant funding we are so fortunate to receive, I believe we have every reason to be excited about the next steps for BDCU and we look forward to hitting more milestones in the future.”