HONG KONG — Should credit unions in different countries around the world consider integrating some of their functions to help them sharpen their competitive edge in their markets? That is one of the questions world credit union leaders are debating this year at the World Credit Union Conference.
David Grace, vice president for association services for WOCCU laid out the advantages of integrating different credit union operations, a step which provides many of the advantages of a merger while allowing the credit union to continue.
Credit unions which integrate their operations can enjoy the benefits of increased brand recognition, cost efficiencies in information technology, human resources and marketing and sharply increased market share, Grace explained.
Recommended For You
He reported on the experiences of the Caja Popular Mexicana, a coalition of over 250 credit unions which integrated many of their operations in 1995. At the time, Grace reported the credit unions had 170,000 members, US $67 million in deposits and US $83 million in assets. Twenty two years after integration, the CUs have 1.2 million members, deposits of US $1.4 billion and assets of US $1.6 billion.
"It's hard not to see the beneficial impacts of integration in the Mexican case," Grace observed.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
