Volunteers Key to Norwich Credit Union as it Enhances its Operations

Tuesday 23 January 2024

Now operating for 32 years, CEO of Norwich Credit Union (NCU), Jon Warne hails the volunteers who have been critical to the success of NCU.

Established in 1989, Jon believes the credit union’s greatest strength is the cooperative ethos of its volunteer system, “We are trying to run NCU for the best of intentions. I believe co-operation is better than competition”.

However, with NCU being run by volunteers, Jon added the biggest issue for NCU was its need for more volunteers provide its much needed valued service,  for its 1,500 union members with a share balance of £865,000 and a loan balance of £380,000. Jon added: “Future plans are to employ staff to take care of day-to-day operations. Our volunteers have been very committed during the pandemic, but they are not getting any younger and succession is a very real problem in the near future.”

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, NCU had to adapt quickly ensure it could continue to meet the financial needs of its members.

“We quickly enlisted RSign to enable us to offer the ability to get loan agreements signed electronically, eliminating the need for attendance at our now closed service points”, says Director of Norwich Credit Union, Danny Thomas.

NCU also changed its loan application processing and started using Open Banking via Lending Metrics eliminating the requirement for members to submit paper bank statements.

Since these developments, NCU have employed a part time administrator and have recently employed a Loan officer to manage its advanced loan system.

Looking ahead to the future, Danny believes the Credit Union is in a good position to continue to provide its valued service to the community, he said: “With these new processes we are now more confident we can cater to a whole new market, those who need loans quickly, which will put us in direct competition with nefarious loan sharks and payday lenders.”