by Amy Neale, Content Marketing Manager
(in her last CU Solutions Group blog)
(in her last CU Solutions Group blog)
As our country is about to celebrate 239 years of
independence this Saturday, I wanted to reflect on how credit unions celebrate
independence on a daily basis. 166 years ago, German citizens declared their
financial independence with the first credit union. This “people’s bank” was
created to provide credit to urban entrepreneurs. The United States followed
suit 60 years later.
While it may seem a bit of a stretch to compare the
independence of our country to that of our not-for-profit organizations, I
truly don’t think so. Taking a financial institution’s control out of the hands
of shareholders and into members’ hands is no small feat. Cooperative in nature
from day one, credit unions soon became known as offering an alternative to
traditional loans to help the working class in 1800s Germany. This ideal spread
to Canada in 1901 when Alphonse Desjardins learned of a resident that was
paying $5,000 in interest on a $150 loan.
When Edward Filene helped credit unions spread to the U.S.,
he founded them from an employer-based bond of association. Future paychecks
were used as collateral, putting financial control even more in the hands of
credit union members.
No matter what country, credit unions worldwide are based on
a single principle: that people could pool their money together to make loans
to each other. How’s that for independence?
After looking on the NCUA website, I discovered that there
are three credit unions with the word “independence” in them, one with “democracy”
and a dozen with “free” in their names. I can’t think of too many banks with
those words in their names, can you? It’s no coincidence that the most
independent financial institutions in the world often have names to reflect
their mission.
So, as this year’s Independence Day rolls around, remember
that credit unions have a lot to celebrate as well. Hope you all have a fun and safe 4th of July.
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