If Dan Mica had his way, he would be on a flight to Cuba tomorrow to help establish the nation's first credit unions and boost the financial wellbeing of the country's 11 million citizens.

But Mica, a former U.S. Congressman from Florida, former president/CEO of CUNA and current president of consulting firm The DMA Group, knows that such a process isn't simple.

The fact that Cuba is a country that is moving from communism to cooperative business ownership, while at the same time unshackling from a 53-year-old U.S. economic embargo, makes the process that much more challenging.

“Based on my involvement in foreign affairs and since [President] Obama's announcement on Dec. 17, I know it's always good to get involved and understand what's going on,” Mica said. “This might be the chance we need to go down there and see if there are opportunities for credit unions.”

Mica's goal for 2015 is to lead a contingency of credit union and trade association executives to Cuba to explore opportunities to build a financial cooperative movement. Although only in the early stages of discussion with potential attendees, the former U.S. representative who has been to Cuba four times, sees distinct opportunities for credit unions to boost an economy transitioning from full government ownership.

“We saw it work in Poland,” Mica said. “It was difficult for former Soviet block countries to move from communism to capitalism. Poland moved to the cooperative sector and became the fastest growing financial system among those countries.”

Credit unions' people-helping-people mantra also makes perfect sense in this situation, Mica added. Regardless, a business-to-business connection between the U.S. and Cuba of any kind will have been a long time coming.

On Feb. 7, 1962, then President John F. Kennedy signed into law a U.S. commercial, economic and financial embargo against Cuba, the Caribbean's largest island nation. The loss of Cuban ally Fulgencio Batista and his regime to Marxist revolutionaries who established a communist government under Fidel Castro a mere 90 miles from U.S. shores had brought the Cold War's billowing chill a little too close to home.

That changed in December when Obama ordered diplomatic relations with Cuba be restored, a U.S. embassy be established in Havana, and that a half-century of isolationism and mistrust that had failed to serve U.S. interests, should come to an end.

Obama's move, although not without its critics in the Cuban-American community, signaled a change in policies and relationships between the two countries. But the Caribbean nation over the past few years had already begun an evolution from full government ownership of all business enterprises to a more cooperative structure, helping set the stage for potential credit union development.

“The Cuban government began making shifts in its legislation and its planned economy to get some businesses off its books,” Mike Beall, president/CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association/Cooperative League of the United States of America, said. “These were cost-cutting measures that devolved government-owned business into cooperatives, making the workers-owners, putting all the economic responsibility on their books and sending them on their way.”

In July 2014, Beall, former president/CEO of both the Missouri Credit Union Association and Maryland/D.C. Credit Union Association, led an NCBA CLUSA research group to Cuba specifically to look at agricultural coops, the most mature of any of the country's emerging cooperatives.

Beall said the group members were impressed with what they saw.

“For years, the Cuban government had been giving land to virtually any group of people who asked for it and had a good work plan,” Beall said. “We saw cooperatives that were really well-run and focused on earning a good living for their members.”

Beall's group also learned that worker-owners of the cooperatives tended to work longer hours, made greater profits and paid themselves a higher wage that sometimes equaled three to four times the wages earned under the state-run system. However, the group saw no financial statements to back up those claims.

“This was a state-run trip headed by a guide the government supplied and we saw what they wanted us to see,” Beall said. “They're still working at this and we'd like to delve a little deeper and find out more about how these cooperatives are run.”

NCBA CLUSA is planning a second trip to Cuba this July, this time, with an emphasis on more transparency and exploring the possibility of credit union development, Beall said. The trade association and the National Association of Latino Credit Union Professionals will host a March 10 reception for interested credit union parties at the National Press Club in Washington. A report analyzing the findings of the July 2014 trip will be distributed and plans for the upcoming trip will be discussed.

Although initial efforts may still be months away, Cuba is ripe for credit union development, according to Stanley Kuehn, NCBA CLUSA's regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“I've worked in countries that disliked cooperatives and countries that cherished them, and this is the right time for credit unions in Cuba,” said Kuehn, whose extensive cooperative development career included several years of managing the World Council of Credit Unions' development efforts in Ethiopia.

Cuba already had some financial cooperatives, including one made up entirely of accountants, but steps need to be taken to broaden the number and reach throughout the country, Kuehn said. Transparency, governance capabilities and staff training are all hurdles credit union developers face in bringing the movement to Cuba.

“The accountants' financial cooperative would be the place to start rolling out the discussion on credit unions,” Kuehn said.

Cuba's migration to a cooperative environment also sets the stage for a need for credit unions, Kuehn said. Worker-owners making more money need a place to establish a banking relationship and so do the cooperatives themselves.

“Credit unions are a very important piece and it's now easy to move in that direction because cooperative workers can probably start saving $2 or $3 a month,” Kuehn said. “That's what we saw in Ethiopia. More of the farmers were willing to go into a SACCO [a savings and credit cooperative, or credit union] than a traditional financial institution. I see those same characteristics emerging in Cuba.”

The average annual per capita income in Cuba is $6,200, according to United Nations figures. At the same time, the island has one of the world's highest literacy rates at 99.8%, and has supplied more than 50,000 health care personnel to 66 countries worldwide, including 165 physicians working for the World Health Organization fighting the Ebola virus in West Africa.

The World Council also thinks Cuba is ready for credit union development and is taking tentative steps towards establishing the necessary relationships with government officials both in the U.S. and Cuba to make this happen, according to Brian Branch, World Council's president/CEO.

“There is an unserved consumer market in Cuba which credit unions can serve very well,” Branch said. “There is currently no legal framework for credit unions in Cuba, so one of the first steps requires policy dialog with the government to establish that framework.”

The World Council has been working with the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Financial Assets Control to better understand the rigors of credit union development requirement for Cuba. The Madison, Wis.-based global trade group also has been communicating with Cuban officials about the benefits an organized credit union system can provide for Cuban consumers, especially small farmers.

Credit unions' net effect on the financial growth and wellbeing of Cuba and its citizens could have a significant impact similar to benefits experienced in other countries around the world, Branch said.

“Credit union growth in many Eastern European countries provides useful strategic models for credit union growth in transition economies like Cuba,” Branch added. “Credit union systems in Latin America can provide operational models for credit union operations and services in Cuba.”

Mica agreed, suggesting that a multi-disciplinary approach involving a variety of cooperatives, in addition to credit unions, may be the best way to help Cuba's economy emerge and co-exist successfully with more capitalistic countries.

“The huge Fortune 500 corporations want to get involved with Cuba, but their road will be longer and steeper than cooperatives because there is a lot for them to work out beforehand,” Mica said. “There is still a great deal of distrust in dealing with pure American capitalism in Cuba, but cooperative movement principles are more familiar to Cubans and may provide the perfect balance for a changing time.”

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Cuba Fertile Ground for Credit Unions

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