British Credit Unions: A Different Future
Our Reflections series provides a platform for practitioners to share their experience, insights and ideas with the credit union movement and its stakeholders. In this new paper, Jonathan Moore, formerly CEO of Stockport Credit Union, presents a bold vision of opportunity for British credit unions, requiring ambition and energy to grasp.
Download the paper here or click on the image.
Jonathan recently provided a Food for Thought blog to introduce his subject, where he noted the hugely challenging political, economic and social outlook in which British credit unions will operate in the near future – the impact on their members and the implications for credit union trading. Jonathan suggested that “… these undesired outturns have the potential to be devastating for many of our members and may well come to pose an existential threat to some of the individual credit unions within the sector. Our sector may be diminished at the very time that our members need us the most.”
His Reflections paper provides a call to action for the protection of the sector and the members, and Swoboda is excited to present this to its own subscribers and the wider public. Jonathan’s focus is on British credit unions, but his conclusions in particular may resonate with credit unionists in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Many thanks to Jonathan for taking the time to prepare this piece. If you have a topic you would like to ‘Reflect’ on in this way to the benefit of other credit unions, please contact Dr Paul A Jones, Director of Research at Swoboda (p.a.jones@ljmu.ac.uk).
Download the report here or click on the image.
Jonathan was CEO of Stockport Credit Union from 2019 to 2022. Under his leadership the credit union undertook a far-reaching modernisation and digitalisation programme which culminated in a near doubling of the loan book and a strengthened reach within its community. Prior to this he was on the board of directors at Salford Credit Union between 2017 and 2020. Jonathan has a three-decade career relationship with the mutual sector, having been employed by three building societies, culminating in a role as Head of Credit, which encompassed a range of responsibilities including business development, product development, and mortgage lending. Today, Jonathan pursues a portfolio career with a broad range of interests and activities which includes being a Non-Executive Director of the Fair Credit Charity, which advocates for financial inclusion and promotes the expansion of the affordable credit market. He continues his link with the mutual sector by being a trustee of the Leek Building Society Charitable Foundation.