A new committee established by the World Council of Credit Unions (Woccu) will identify best practices and strategies for credit unions around the globe in their response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Covid-19 Response Committee will provide advise around advocacy, member support, digitisation, community support and business continuity. It will be chaired by Younsik Kim, board director of Woccu, and chair and president of the National Credit Union Federation of Korea (NACUFOK). His federation NACUFOK provided loan support services and donated US$1.76m and 200,000 masks to member credit unions.
He said: “The Korean credit union system is committed to keeping members and staff safe, while ensuring they can adapt and respond to the economic impacts of the pandemic. We are also committed to helping credit unions around the world devise a comprehensive strategy to not only survive this crisis but thrive in the future.”
The other committee members are Woccu board directors Martha Durdin of Canada, Charles Murphy of Ireland and board chair Rafał Matusiak of Poland; Greg Michlig, chief engagement officer, Credit Union National Association (USA); Elenita San Roque, CEO, Asian Confederation of Credit Unions; George Ombado, CEO, African Confederation of Savings and Credit Cooperatives; and Adrian Rodriguez, CEO, Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperatives of Costa Rica.
The new committee will host a series of bimonthly webinars starting on 17 September. The first webinar of the series will feature a presentation on the current status of Covid-19 and a global perspective on the outlook of the pandemic by Dongil Ahn, visiting professor, Yeonsei University Graduate School of Public Health, and former WHO representative in Cambodia and Lao PDR. Participants will also hear from Goosoon Kwon, professor of global development cooperation at Seoul Cyber University, who will explore present and future international work related to the virus.
More information of the webinar will be available on Woccu’s Covid-19 Resource Page.
