WOCCU BOARD ELECTS NEW CHAIR

The WOCCU  board of  directors elected Rafał Matusiak , the  President of the National Association of Co-operative Savings and Credit Unions (NACSCU – Poland), as its new Chair following its 2020 Annual General Meeting ( AGM). 

Over ninety delegates from around the globe attended the AGM, which also featured presentations of the Distinguished Service Award and Member Growth Awards, along with recognition of new WOCCU members.

Matusiak becomes Chair as he enters his sixth year of service on the World Council Board. He was first was elected as a board director in July 2015. He was then elected Chair of the Governance and Elections Committee in 2017, before being elected Vice Chair and Secretary in 2018.

He has vowed to help the World Council promote and defend the credit union model around the world through its advocacy efforts and development work.

 Distinguished Service Award

The World Council presented the 2020 Distinguished Service Award (DSA) to the Indiana Credit Union League (ICUL) for its exemplary commitment in  supporting credit unions serving vulnerable populations, disaster victims, immigrants and entrepreneurs outside  their  countries. The ICUL has welcomed credit union professionals to Indiana from Ecuador, The Netherlands, Dominica, Costa Rica, Brazil, The Dominican Republic and Guatemala for training, education and networking opportunities.

WOCCU’s Distinguished Service Award is the industry’s top global honour for worthy individuals and organizations that have shown great contributions to further the credit union movement outside their own countries.

Championing a digital future

Hosting a remote AGM through a virtual platform may have been a departure for the World Council, but it is the type of adaptation credit unions across the world have had to make due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to World Council President and CEO Brian Branch.

“Credit unions instinctively went to assisting members right away with loan restructuring, advances and financial counseling,” Branch told attendees in his report to the AGM. “The credit union response is more significant for affected populations than the response from commercial banks. Several credit union systems have also accelerated the expansion of mobile channels for members during this crisis. Digitization is now viewed by consumers as a matter of safety, not just convenience or competitiveness.”

 The World Council continues to champion the digitization of the global credit union system through its Challenge 2025 initiative.

.