Eleven of Colombia’s 192 credit unions, serving 600,000 Colombians, formed a trade association.
According to the Credit Union Times, the Colombian Association of Financial and Savings Cooperatives met this week with the chairman and president-CEO of the World Council of Credit Unions, Manuel Rabines and Brian Branch.
Prior to becoming a trade association, the organization has worked with credit unions — financial co-operatives which allow people excluded from conventional banking to have accounts and borrow money — throughout Colombia for years.
It has also set up a program in which volunteers will use mobile technology to bring financial services to 100,000 Colombians living in remote areas who are “unbanked,” meaning they do not have a checking or savings account.
Rabines said, “To organize an association is part of the process of integration, first among credit unions, then with their national cooperative federation and one day with the World Council at the international level.”