12 thoughts on “Ah Here

  1. dav

    What happened at Rush was disgraceful but should not be used to batter the Credit Union movement as a whole. Remember they are the only alternative financial option open to people apart from the loan shark “pillar banks” and loan sharks in general,

      1. TheQ47

        That ad is from the Civil Service Credit Union. Looking at their website (http://www.cscu.ie), they offer a Christmas Loan rate of 6.9% (7.12% APR). that means a loan of €500 over 52 weeks would require a payback of €517.72, payable in weekly instalments of €9.96.

        That’s fairly manageable for most, I’d say.

    1. Harry Molloy

      Agreed but it does show the need for regulation, a lot of people were up in arms about the credit union’s being regulated but gt just proves that everyone needs a watchdog.

      That said, it’s not the central banks job, nor is gt within their abilities, to micro manage any regulated entity. But they do need to insist that credit unions now have boards who are aware of their responsibilities and liabilities, and auditors need to start getting held to account too.

      1. ivan

        I’m out of the CU loop now, Harry but I was on a board for a while. You’re not wrong in what you say but there are a few caveats, or at least things worth mentioning. I think that regulation is good. It means that, if nothing else, a CU isn’t going to give out daft loans without the risk of being hauled up on it. It means that reserves are (or at least should be) maintained etc.

        However, there are downsides. People volunteer to be on CU boards, and the optics are bad if people are paid for their service. However, the amount of work that board members have to do nowadays, including CPD hours is rather onerous, and from my own recollection (others may have different mileage) CPD was code for some gobsheen from the Central Bank telling you to clean up your act or the bogeyman would get you, rather than anything that, y’know, enabled you to really fulfil your role more ably.

        Then there’s the policy of the Central Bank of getting CUs to merge. Now I can see the benefits but if you’ve three CUs each 12 miles apart in a triangle formation then the ability of the loans committee for one to meet with others is diminshed. You start having sub offices, and it’s head office making the decisions, with the local touch being lost. The idea’s always been that the folk signing off on your loan for the slatted shed are people who know that you’re a good sort who’ll pay back.

        and the final problem is that it’s not *just* havign boards aware of responsibilities et al that is required by the CB but board members with experience of, say, Law, Marketing etc. But no self respecting professional is going to go onto a board with their Law hat on without issuing a caveat that they’re there as a volunteer, no duty of care blah blah blah, so the effect is somewhat watered down. Same would go for accountants. And THAT’S easy enough in urban areas; in rural areas you might be hard pushed to find somebody who’s willing to sit on a board and has the expertise (that they’re not willing to ‘give’ for fear of a fupp up landing them in bother).

        It’s a tangled web. There are times I think the CB is cracking a nut with a sledgehammer.

        1. Harry Molloy

          Good points Ivan, hard to argue any of them. Credit Unions are damn difficult due to their voluntary nature, which would be a shame to lose, but they are still subject to the same legislation as any credit institution, which is incredibly onerous over the past 8 years. So onerous that it’s damn tough for any smaller body to comply, hence the merging.

          I think ideally there would be professionals on each board but appreciate the difficulties you’re set out.

          I’d like to think that in ten years time a nice balance will have been struck and the sector is healthier than ever.

    1. ivan

      i was gonna say ‘b-doom tish’ but really, it’s more a 25 minute effort you’d be looking at, innit?

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