Credit Unions 101

Hosted by Eryk Martin and Robin Puga

“Okay, show of hands. How many people here are a member of a co-op? … Okay, 12. … Credit unions are co-ops too eh? So you put up your hand if you’re a member of credit union. … Okay, 53. Hmmm.”

It has always been interesting to us how many people we meet that don’t know credit unions are co-operatively owned financial institutions – the co-operative business model in the context of the financial sector. During July, 2006, Each for All set out to study the topic of credit unions and caisse populaire in hopes of better understanding how they function and how their members and community benefit. Credit Unions 101 is a collection of interviews with distinguished guests from the BC credit union movement.

“Credit Unionism was a kind of economic populism squarely within the traditions of the most distinctive version of co-operative thought. It believed – a deceptively radical idea – that the economy, no less than the political order, could be operated on democratic principles.”
Dr. Ian MacPherson, 1995