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International Credit Union Day - Thursday 20th October 2022

Wednesday 20th Dec, 2023

Thursday 20^th October 2022 is International Credit Union Day.   Credit Union Members all around the world will be joining in celebrations to mark the credit union movement’s impact and achievements.  

Since 1948, International Credit Union Day has been organised on the third Thursday of October by the World Council of Credit Unions.  Each year, the international event provides an opportunity to remember the proud history of credit unions and raise awareness of their power to make a big difference to the financial well-being of people and their communities.

This year marks the 74^th anniversary and the theme is Empower Your Financial Future with a Credit Union.  John Smith, HEY Credit Union’s CEO, explains:

“There are still 1.4 billion people across the globe who are unbanked. Credit unions truly have the perfect business model to empower their financial future and that is a message for our entire global movement to celebrate and promote on Thursday 20 October.

“The credit unions that we know and love today were all started in a small way by people who saw the need for everyone to be able to build up some savings safely, and obtain fair and affordable credit instead of being at the mercy of unscrupulous lenders charging extortionate interest rates. 

“Our founder-pioneers came together to set up credit unions as co-operatives whose whole purpose is to serve their member-owners, not make money out of them. They designed ethical savings and loan products to help them to manage their money wisely.  They took great care of their members’ funds, knowing the trust they had placed in them.  As time went by, more and more people flocked to join credit unions. 

“Thanks to their efforts, credit unions have flourished around the world and are making a significant social impact. They are challenging the big mainstream banks that often seem to have forgotten their own roots, and the people they used to serve, in a quest to make ever bigger profits and bonuses for their shareholders and managers.”

Here’s ten facts to share with you about HEY Credit Union and hopefully make you proud to be a Member:

• We serve around 15,000 adult members and junior savers online, by phone and at our community branches in Hull, Beverley, Bridlington, Driffield, Goole, Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Withernsea.
• Our team of 20 dedicated staff are all paid at least the Real Living Wage.
• Our 12 volunteer directors are chosen from their fellow-members, all with equal voting rights at the AGM. There are no ‘fat cats’ here lording over other members!
• We can provide loans for our members from £100 to £20,000 at very competitive rates. A trained human being not a computer decides on every application.
• Our Christmas Saver account (not offered by banks), with £1 million locked safely away each year, helps hundreds of members to manage their festive spends.
• Any surpluses that arise, after putting funds into Reserve for a rainy day, are shared among the member-savers whose loyalty helped to earn them. It’s called Credit Union Dividend and in 22 years we’ve paid out £1.2 million.
• We work with over 40 local, regional and national employers to provide their workforce with a popular payroll-based savings and loan facility.
• We are regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority (similarly to banks and building societies) to keep members’ funds safe and treat them fairly.
• We estimate that we are saving our members at least £2 million in total every year when they borrow from us rather than one of the high-cost credit alternatives.
• Across the world there are over 86,000 credit unions serving more than 375 million members in 118 different countries.

We truly are the People’s Business as everything we do is for our Members. We’re on a mission to empower everyone who chooses to join to enjoy great financial well-being and resilience to weather any financial storm.

If you’re not a member already, we would love to welcome you into our Credit Union Family!  

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