The business models of credit unions: an international comparisonDescription
The Business Models of Credit Unions: An International Comparison, commissioned by the Department of Finance as part of the five-year strategy preparatory work.
The report looks at seven credit union systems across six countries – Brazil, Canada (both Desjardins and Anglophone), Guatemala, Jamaica, Poland and the USA – using a common framework of value creation, delivery and capture to make them genuinely comparable. The findings are striking: no single international model exists, but three clear structural systems emerge, and lessons for high-income systems like Ireland are drawn out.
One conclusion stands out: the starting question for any credit union movement is not structure or regulation, but purpose. Who are we serving, and with what? Our contention is that once that is answered, the rest tends to follow.
