Irish League of Credit Unions to push for fund
On Saturday more that 600 delegates from the 505 credit unions affiliated to the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) voted overwhelmingly to push for the a cross-border stabilisation fund to support all credit unions, including those not affiliated to the ILCU.
The private meeting in the O’Reilly Hall at University College Dublin rejected all options outlined by the Central Bank’s Registrar of Credit Unions James O’Brien in a consultation paper in June, proposing a statutory bailout fund for credit unions that become insolvent.
The ILCU will submit its proposal on the Registrar’s paper by next Friday before making public comment.
The Irish Examiner can confirm that delegates at the special general meeting in Dublin have adopted a strategy which puts them on a collision course with the Registrar and involves opening up the ILCU’s existing €125 million savings protection scheme (SPS) to all credit unions.
The ILCU delegates approved a draft submission to the Registrar which rejects Mr O’Brien’s options and favours giving the ILCU full ownership and control of any new scheme, imposing full responsibility for funding the scheme on the credit union movement.
“We believe that the only way in which to protect the ethos of the movement under any new arrangements (which may come about as a result of this process) is to ensure that the credit unions retain ownership and control of the new Credit Union Stabilisation Scheme.
“Anything else would go against the self-help, co-operative ethos of the credit union movement,” the document approve by delegates states.
The ILCU executive has been mandated to campaign for the all-Ireland fund and to hold talks with the credit union registrars north and south.
The members want the registrars to discuss and advise on how the proposed new entity would best meet their objectives.
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