Credit Unions

The Depression of the 1930s hit British Columbians hard. Overconfidence in the 1920s made the lows of the 1930s seem even worse, and as unemployment rates soared, banks began to pull out of small communities. It was the intense desperation of this era that caused the emergence of credit unions in British Columbia.

What are credit unions? Credit unions are defined as member-owned, co-operative financial institutions, which were formed to encourage savings by offering good interest rates, and using the collective money deposited by members to make loans to members at low interest rates.

Before credit unions, small businesses as well as low-income citizens had nowhere to save money and when in need had to rely on family, friends or moneylenders for credit. Banks in the early 1900s had no interest in small depositors or community loans. Gradually, with influence from movements in Europe, eastern Canada and the U.S.A., innovators began discussing solutions to this problem. The movement in Europe can be traced back to Germany where co-operative financing had first been initiated during the 1840s to help rural farmers and artisans improve their livelihoods. Closer to home, Alphonse Desjardins opened up the first credit union in North America in Quebec in 1900. Desjardins' caisses populaires, along with the Antigonish movement in Nova Scotia, which boasted a successful and lively credit union movement, demonstrated that co-operation was effective in the financial sphere.

BCICS has many projects involving research into credit unions and caisse populaires. 

In 2006, Each for All Radio (BCICS' educational radio show on co-operatives) featured a month on the theme of credit unions. The collection of interviews from that month can be ordered here or you can listen online at the Each for All website. 

*More information for this section is coming soon.