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Defining Our Purpose is Key for the Sector says Credit Union CEO

Submitting a new paper in a series of research reports for the Swoboda Research Centre, CEO of The Co-op Credit Union, Matt Bland offers his reflections on why credit unions should invest time and energy in defining and codifying their purpose as organisations.

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Thursday 25 January 2024

Submitting a new paper in a series of research reports for the Swoboda Research Centre, CEO of The Co-op Credit Union, Matt Bland offers his reflections on why credit unions should invest time and energy in defining and codifying their purpose as organisations.

The report is broken down into seven sections challenging credit union peers to understand beyond the simplest ideology that credit unions are more than just organisations offering savings and loans.

“The paper is a challenge to all credit unions to ask themselves whether they are clear enough about their purpose as organisations,” Matt says. “I argue that if we are not clear in our thinking on this, then we will struggle to answer the big strategic questions about where we want to go or to persuade our stakeholders to back us with investment and support.

“The paper offers my thinking on the purpose of credit unions but I don’t mean to suggest that my view is the right one, only that it is one perspective which I hope will chime with readers and provoke their own thinking about purpose.”

Matt ends by sharing The Co-op Credit Union’s recently-published purpose statement – Defining our Purpose – as an example of what this kind of project might result in. This followed a year-long process of reflection and consultation to better understand what the credit union’s purpose is as an organisation, and to think about how it ensures that the credit union is doing all it can to realise it.

Through a process of meetings, discussions and focussed group work, the committee came up with a set of proposals focussed around five themes:

  • Campaigning – giving a voice to members & their concerns
  • Social goals – defining and measuring social values
  • Code of conduct – committing to industry best practice
  • Co-operative principles – living up to co-operative values
  • Inclusion & diversity – responding to the diverse needs of members

Reflecting on Defining our Purpose, Matt said: “We don’t claim to have all the answers or to have got everything right, but we’re proud to have taken the time to think about and codify what it is that we’re here for and we believe it gives us a clear platform for what we hope will be a sustained period of growth over the coming decade and beyond.

“I would like to thank Paul and Nick at the Swoboda Centre for the opportunity to contribute my thinking on this vital subject and for their helpful comments and feedback.”

You can download the full report from the Swoboda Research Centre here.

If you have a topic you would like to ‘Reflect’ on in this way to the benefit of other credit unions, please contact Dr Paul A Jones, Director of Research at Swoboda (p.a.jones@ljmu.ac.uk).

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