Viva Las Vegas for credit union board members

THE chips may be down, but it’s still Viva Las Vegas for a group of credit union board members off on a €20,000 networking trip.

The Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) is sending six board members and two competition winners to Las Vegas in July for a global conference.

Amidst one of the worst times ever for the credit union movement, the ILCU is believed to be paying for flights, accommodation and the conference fee for the delegation at a cost of around €20,000.

This follows the €25,000 spent last year when the ILCU sent 12 delegates and five of their spouses to a conference in Barcelona.

A spokesperson for the League said, while they acknowledge these are “very difficult times” for many members, they “do not wish to appear insensitive to their circumstances” and feel that it is important that they “continue to keep in touch with the progress and difficulties faced by the movement internationally so that we might learn from the opportunities and the potential difficulties which lie ahead.”

She added that, in light of the current economic climate, the ILCU has decided to limit its delegation to this year’s conference.

The League said no staff members will attend the conference and the delegation will be made up of the ILCU board members and supervisors, who do not receive remuneration for their services.

The three-day annual conference of the World Council of Credit Unions (WCCU) takes place at the end of July. Around 1,700 delegates from 60 countries are expected to attend.

The conference will be held at the MGM Grand hotel on the Las Vegas strip and the fee for each delegate is around €800.

In a recent letter to managers, ILCU president Mark Bailey said that the League would try to secure “good value flights and accommodation”.

It was recently revealed that a number of credit unions in severe financial difficulty have broken deadlines to file accounts with the Financial Regulator and are receiving cash support from the ILCU’s €120m Savings Protection Scheme.

As many as 10 credit unions have failed to hold annual general meetings for 2009 because they have failed to get their accounts signed off by the Financial Regulator.

The reasons for the postponing of an AGM can include issues in relation to the level of reserves retained, bad debt provisions, governance, and other financial matters, and in such cases the Financial Regulator seeks “actions” to address the outstanding matters.