On Friday April 12, 2019 the St Patrick’s Cooperative Credit Union Ltd – Montserrat hosted the regional Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions Ltd (CCCU) Board of Directors Meeting. This is the first time in the history of the SPCCU that such a meeting was hosted in Montserrat.
The Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions is the regional Apex body for credit unions whose mission is to facilitate the advancement of the Caribbean Co-operative Sector through sustained growth and development, protecting the movement’s philosophy and values and ensuring safe, sound and efficient co-operative service providers.
The CCCU Board of Directors meeting in Montserrat came on the heels of the SPCCU/ Montserrat hosting the prestigious regional credit union movement, Sir Everard Dean Annual Lecturer series in October 2018, another first for the local credit union and the island.
The CCCU Board of Directors considered issues affecting the regional credit union movement such as compliance, governance and regulatory matters. The meeting was also of great significant since it represents the last formal gathering of the CCCU Board of Directors prior to the CCCU hosting the World Credit Union Conference during the period July 28-31, 2019 in the Bahamas.
General Manager of the SPCCU, Peter Queeley said that SPCCU’s hosting of such a meeting is testimony to growth and significance of the organisation in the regional credit union movement. He added that the hosting of the meeting also represents a recognition by the regional credit union movement that the SPCCU/ Montserrat has become of age and is ready to play its part.
The CCCU Board Meeting in Montserrat comes on the heels of the most recent meeting of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Monetary Council Meeting held on February 15, 2019. At that meeting, the ECCB noted that twelve financial institutions were identified as systematically important institutions three of which were banks and nine were credit unions. The ECCB noted that “while commercial banks continued to dominate the financial sector, credit unions were expanding, becoming an increasingly important source of credit to the private sector through increases in membership, assets, loans and deposits. The boom in credit union activity has implications for financial inclusion and the financial stability framework.”
The SPCCU/ Montserrat is a member of the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions and the OECS Credit Union Forum.
