ATLANTA — The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions is cheering NCUA's chartering of a new CDCU in Georgia even as it highlights the growing difficulty facing groups seeking to found new CUs.
The credit union's soon-to-be CEO, Paula Diaz-Torres said that that CU would work to "break down the cultural and functional barriers that stand between low-income immigrant residents and mainstream financial services. Our project aims to serve low-income individuals from the Hispanic community who struggle to build assets due to a lack of financial sophistication or access to affordable financial products," she added.
During the 1980s and 90s, NCUA was especially active in chartering new credit unions across the nation," explained Federation President/CEO Cliff Rosenthal. "Some of those institutions did not make it, but others have become some of the nation's premier credit unions serving people of modest means."
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"In the past, communities could come together, develop a basic business plan, pool together their limited resources and they could start a credit union," said Rosenthal. "These days, it is virtually a requirement that organizing groups raise hundreds of thousands of dollars of start-up funds in order to satisfy NCUA requirements. We think the barrier to chartering has become too high."
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