The umbrella body for the USA’s community development credit unions announced its rebranding at its national conference last month.
The event, in Florida, saw chief executive Cathie Mahon unveil the name change from the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions to Inclusiv.
She said: “For decades, the federation and community development credit unions have been building trust and delivering relevant products to underserved people with dignity and respect.
“Inclusiv will build on the 44 year legacy of the Federation to grow the visibility and impact of mission-driven credit unions.”
CDCUs have a mission of serving low- and moderate-income people and communities, and specialise in serving populations with limited access to safe financial services.
The conference was attended by a deleation from UK sector body the Association of British Credit Unions (Abcul), sponsored by Citi. In previous years Citi has funded Abcul visits to conferences in Detroit, Dallas, and St Louis.
They also funded a delegation from Inclusiv to Abcul’s annual conference in Manchester last March – where Co-op News interviewed Cathie Mahon and senior vice president Pablo DeFilippi about challenges facing the sector.
This year’s contingent of British credit unions included representatives of Enterprise Credit Union, First Scottish University Credit Union, Pennine Community Credit Union and Transave Credit Union. The group made visits to Manatee Community Federal Credit Union, GTE Financial and Suncoast Credit Union for a further insight to how a US credit union operates.
David Harris, marketing manager at Pennine Community Credit Union (PCCU) presented a workshop sharing how he transformed PCCU’s digital marketing strategy and how it has coincided with a significant growth in the credit union’s lending book.
Since taking a new approach driven by social media, PCCU’s lending has increased by 30%.
Related: PCCU speaks to Co-op News about its marketing magic
Abcul’s Matt Bland also addressed delegates in a plenary session drawing comparisons between credit unions in the UK and US.
Reflecting on the week in Florida, Mr Bland said: “It was another great experience to attend the conference and it was a privilege to present to our American colleagues giving a perspective of the UK credit union sector.
“The biggest benefit of our ongoing partnership with Inclusiv is building great connections with and learning from our colleagues across the Atlantic. As always we are hugely grateful to Citi for the generous support that allows this knowledge exchange to happen.”
Pablo DeFilippi said he saw the partnership between Inclusiv and Abcul as a “great opportunity to be able to share our experiences and learn from each other as we face so many common challenges in successfully serving communities”.
He added: “It’s been great to continue our partnership with Abcul and the UK credit union sector. We hope to be able to build on this partnership in the coming years to the benefit of underserved people in both the UK and US.”
Related: The credit union that sued Donald Trump – stories from the US grassroots
