PORT TALBOT, U.K.–Actor Michael Sheen is appearing in a new video in which he extols the benefits of cooperative finance and credit unions.
Sheen, who has appeared in numerous movies and also stars in Showtime’s The Masters of Sex series, explains in the video how profits stay within the credit union and the local community.
Sheen is a member of a credit union himself, and has been active in promoting co-operative business models as a means to empower communities. In 2016, he helped promote the campaign “Say No to Debt Row,” which presented credit unions as “responsible alternative” sources of credit.
He has also been active politically, asking candidates to champion social enterprises, co-operatives and charities. In addition, he worked with the Wales Co-operative Centre to launch Community Shares Wales and is a patron of Social Enterprise UK, the umbrella organization for social enterprises. Earlier this year, Sheen also attended Co-operative Congress in Wakefield, an annual event hosted by Co-operatives UK.
In the latest video, which was released on International Credit Union Day, Sheen describes credit unions as community banks, with account holders receiving membership.
“This is the fantastic thing about credit unions,” Sheen says during the video. “It’s run for and by the members, and profits go back into the credit unions. It doesn’t go to the city, or to the staff, or to corporate shareholders, it stays within that credit union; your money stays within your community.”
The video was published on the official YouTube channel of the Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL), and can be found here.