Feedback from CFCFE members in Britain and Ireland has identified legislation as a barrier to the development of the sector in both jurisdictions. In Britain, despite previous improvements, some credit union leaders believe that the legislation (and regulation) is still restricting the development and competitiveness of the credit union sector. This came up at our conference in January, and more recently in February by the Governor of the Bank of England, when he stated that credit union legislation was not fit for purpose.
However, how and why credit union legislation is not fit for purpose is not always clearly stated, defined or understood. In fact, there is little evidence to suggest that there is shared understanding of the issue throughout the credit union movement. So we are preparing short briefing papers to identify the issues and the priorities for change, starting now with Britain – we will look at Ireland in due course. We want to map out those areas that our members and other credit unions feel need to be changed and why. This is not taking on the job of engaging with the government to implement change – that is not our role.
We will be surveying all of our British members in the coming weeks. All are welcome to contact us directly to share points of view.
