Credit unions raise SPS concerns

CREDIT unions in the North will be at a disadvantage if the Financial Regulator imposes a guaranteed savings protection scheme (SPS), the credit union movement has warned.

In its annual report for 2005, released last week, the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) said the Registrar of Credit Unions, which is part of the Financial Regulator’s office, has drawn up a statutory SPS to replace the existing scheme and has presented the plans to Finance Minister Brian Cowen.

Under the plans the current SPS, which helps individual credit unions that run financial trouble, will become a statutory scheme.