Great Manchester Mayor Praises ‘Fantastic’ Credit Unions

Friday 22 November 2024

For Talk Money Week 2024 Greater Manchester (GM) credit unions held the spotlight at an event organised by Nest Insight at the Co-op Building in Manchester. The event focussed on Opt-Out Savings trials and how when employers #DoOneThing to help their staff get saving, it makes a huge impact on their financial health.

The SoundPound Group is a co-operative of 14 credit unions based in Greater Manchester and was invited to showcase the benefits of credit union membership. Many high-profile leaders contributed to the day including Rose Marley, CEO of Co-operatives UK, Shirine Khoury-Haq, CEO of the Co-op Group and Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.

The Group is grateful to have the support of Andy Burnham, who in his address said GM’s credit unions are “Fantastic institutions rooted in their communities” and emphasised that “if we allow them, [credit unions] could be an even bigger part in this mission to increase people’s financial resilience”.

One opt-out savings scheme highlighted as a successful example was between TransaveUK Credit Union, SUEZ and Nest Insight. The 2021 pilot trial involved automatically enrolling new joiners to the company SUEZ into payroll savings with the credit union, unless they opted-out. Almost two years after its launch, approximately 95% of employees who were enrolled into opt-out savings schemes with TransaveUK still saved money through this method.

“Credit unions have been supporting employee wellbeing through workplace savings and affordable credit for many decades” said Matt Bland, CEO of The Co-op Credit Union and Employer Engagement Workstream Lead for The SoundPound Group. He continued: “The SoundPound Group of credit unions in Greater Manchester has nearly 150,000 members and works with more than 200 different employers – large and small.”

Addressing the importance of establish credit union partnerships, Matt said “The credit unions of Greater Manchester are keen to work with any employer looking to boost their employees’ resilience.  And if opt-out savings is too much to begin with, just offering the workplace savings scheme if you don’t already have one would be a great place to start.”

Recently appointed Independent Chair for The SoundPound Group – Gary Millar reflected on the event and commented “It was great to be part of the Opt-out savings event, and to be able to tell everyone about the amazing opportunities that exist for GM organisations of all types to work with our credit unions.”

A key takeaway from the day was that credit unions exist to service everyone and can boost the financial health of all. Every person who lives or works in Greater Manchester can join a credit union today and more information on where to start can be found on The SoundPound website here.