This is a major project which is being supported by Barclays and follows its commitment to assist in the scaling up of third sector lending. Barclays will make a donation of £250,000 for the 10 month project.
"This is fantastic news," says Mark Lyonette, Chief Executive of ABCUL. "The donation announced today by Barclays will play an important role in helping the sector to grow."
"We're delighted be helping the credit union sector in this way," says Peter Kelly, Head of Financial Inclusion at Barclays. "This is very much part of our strategy to mainstream financial inclusion in the UK. Our support will promote the sustainable development of credit unions and will help them bring affordable financial services to more vulnerable consumers."
One of the most powerful ways for credit unions in Britain to have a bigger sustainable impact on financial inclusion is to find the best ways to collaborate on elements of credit union operations. Back office integration is a proven and key ingredient in the success of more developed credit union sectors around the world.
The funding from Barclays will enable ABCUL to help its members collaborate on key aspects of their operations; bring economies of scale to credit union operations, which will assist in achieving sustainability for many more credit unions and raise standards and improve quality through consistency in the delivery of key services to members.
Barclays and ABCUL have worked together since 2002, when the bank sponsored an ABCUL project to introduce the PEARLS financial monitoring system to British credit unions. This internationally recognised benchmarking system, developed by the World Council of Credit Unions, helps credit unions to improve both their financial performance and their social effectiveness.
Barclays has continued to assist ABCUL in the roll out of PEARLS, which has contributed to a number of valuable changes in the way credit unions work.
In 2007 Barclays also provided assistance to ABCUL to enable it to run a series of roadshows for credit unions and stakeholders to examine how credit unions can be helped to scale up and reach out to more people. This enabled the sector to contribute to the Scaling up the Sector discussions through the Financial Inclusion Task Force.
