Country’s largest credit union reports €7.3m profit as reserves hit record high

The country’s largest credit union — St Raphael’s Garda Credit Union — has reported a net profit of €7.3 million for its latest financial year, with reserves rising to record levels.

The surplus increase — for the 12 months to the end of September — contributed to a 7% rise in the organisation’s reserve, which now stands at a record high of €51.6m.

The Dublin-based body — which looks after 32,000 members, mainly from Garda families — has reported a surplus for every year of the economic downturn and continues to have a very strong balance sheet and a growing membership base.

Chief executive Claire Byrne attributed the growth to prudent lending and rigorous cost management and attacked what she called “inaccurate reporting” of the credit union sector in some quarters of the media.

“St Raphael’s continues to be in a very strong financial position and we expect it will continue to be one of the strongest credit unions in the country. Like every other lender, we have some borrowers who are having difficulty in repaying their loans, but the numbers are relatively small and we will continue to manage them appropriately,” she added.

Loans to members stood at €102m as of the end of September, with member deposits and shares totalling €258m. During the year, St Raphael’s set aside €1.4m in impairments to provide for bad and doubtful debts.

However, it also recovered €500,000 from previous bad debt provisions. This income was generated as a result of recovering money from loans that had previously been written off.

The union added, ahead of its AGM last night, that it will pay a dividend of 1.5% to members on their shares.

St Raphael’s figures came a day after the Irish League of Credit Unions released figures showing rising numbers of people joining credit unions, but existing members taking out fewer loans.