PALM DESERT, Calif.–With nearly four-hundred million human touchpoints around the world, credit unions are perhaps better positioned than any other organizations to drive change and financial inclusion, but there remain huge populations who are not yet part of the financial services system, noted one person here.
Speaking to the California and Nevada leagues’ REACH Conference, Elissa McCarter Laborde, president and CEO of the World Council of Credit Unions, said it was that global membership of 400 million people in 118 countries that really drew her to the job. McCarter Laborde, who joined WOCCU about one year ago, said she saw in credit unions the opportunity to deliver products and services that are fair, affordable and that drive financial inclusion to people around the world.
“Looking to the future, just consider the global experience,” she said. “How do you leverage this international experience of credit unions, cooperativas, SACCOs, mutuals? Those are all different names in different markets, but we are all credit unions with member-owners. It’s a really powerful business model in today’s times of crisis and potentially an economic downturn.”
McCarter Laborde said she wanted her audience to go home with two takeaways, including:
Global Examples
“There is a wealth of things credit unions are doing that we need to learn from,” she said. “It really takes the aggregate, the strengths in numbers to drive policy changes and have regulators see the benefits of credit unions. We need to measure the impact in aggregate.”
During her first year in the job McCarter Laborde said she has witnessed CUs reaching into underserved markets, expanding services to women, and successfully engaging the next generation “to understand what we are about.”
“I see in Latin America many of our credit union systems are doing a better job of reaching members with climate-smart adaptations, tools for them to mitigate risk, especially in rural communities,” she told the meeting. “With ESG regulations coming, no matter what your views are on climate change, the fact is our members are being disrupted and our members need the tools and resources to weather those shocks.”
The Power of Numbers
McCarter Laborde said credit unions have shown the power in aggregate to drive policy changes.
“We have seen through the data and the drive of collective experience around the world that we are able to influence decisions at the G20 and in international bodies,” she said, pointing to WOCCU’s success in having “proportionality” considered by many of those organizations when they are making rules.
The Second Takeaway
The second takeaway McCarter Laborde said she wanted her audience to take home has to do with greater recognition around the role of credit unions in financial systems globally.
She pointed to the Ukraine Displacement Fund created by the Worldwide Foundation, WOCCU’s philanthropic arm, as an example. She noted that credit unions in that country being devastated by the Russian invasion have been recognized by the National Bank of Ukraine for being part of the financial system and recovery in the country.
“When we are at our best we are showing in multiple countries that credit unions are essential providers in the financial system that works for everyone,” she said.
Personal ‘Pressure’
McCarter Laborde noted that for the first time at the World Council the CEO and the chairman (Diana Dykstra, CEO of the California and Nevada Leagues) are both women.
“I feel a little bit of pressure that I have to show with Diana that it matters when you have women in leadership, that change happens,” McCarter Laborde said. “I see the huge opportunity that we have and the significance of diversity in leadership.”
McCarter Laborde noted that for all the progress made by credit unions internationally, there remain 1.4 billion people on earth who are unbanked and another two-billion who are underserved. Moreover, many of those individuals are “disproportionally women. We as a movement are well positioned to tackle.”