{"id":5259,"date":"2017-07-05T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=5259"},"modified":"2017-07-05T11:06:55","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T09:06:55","slug":"credit-unions-general-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/credit-unions-general-information","title":{"rendered":"Credit Unions: What You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first blog of our new series about credit unions, we take a look at their key features and how they contribute to the financial services market.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Credit unions are financial cooperatives which offer banking services such as loans, credit cards, savings and checking accounts. There are two main differences between banks and credit unions – Firstly credit unions are not-for-profit, whereas banks are. Secondly, credit unions are owned by their account holders – called their members, whereas banks are owned by shareholders. Members buy a share in the credit union (by depositing), and are then entitled to\u00a0vote on resolutions and in elections. Credit unions are similar to cooperatives in their elections in that they operate on a strict one member, one vote policy. It does not matter how many shares a member owns, everyone has an equal.<\/p>\n

There are currently around 60,000 credit unions operating in 109 countries. They serve over 220 million customers. Financial cooperatives are an essential part of the financial services market and their market share is still growing.<\/p>\n

Governance<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As mentioned before, members are entitled to vote in elections. Since the customers usually cannot run a credit union themselves, they elect a board of directors. The board runs the credit union on behalf of the members and makes sure that their interests are the top priority. In this way credit unions are operated for the wider good, giving savings and better returns for their members than banks, which are often run to gain profit for their shareholders.<\/p>\n

In general, the board is elected at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Most directors tend to serve a three-year term on the board. If they are\u00a0large and members spread across the country, delegate elections are a regular occurrence. Members elect their delegate locally or regionally who then represent members on a national level.<\/p>\n

Smaller financial cooperatives can also appoint a board of directors solely made up of volunteers. These smaller financial cooperatives\u00a0tend to have deep local roots and serve their\u00a0communities faithfully.<\/p>\n

Why credit unions?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The most important feature is the emphasis on being a cooperative institution. They do not aim for profit in the traditional sense, but profit that is gained through investments and returns on loans are reinvested into the credit union and into their localities, always with the best interests of their members. A strong tradition within credit unions is to be faithful to their local members. They\u00a0are often strongly involved in their communities, which again benefits the members. The social aspect of these financial institutions is particularly what differentiates them to other banking institutions.<\/p>\n

Read\u00a0more about credit union’s\u00a0way of voting<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next: history of\u00a0credit unions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first blog of our new series about credit unions, we take a look at their key features and how they contribute to the financial services market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":5288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[893],"tags":[1581,1126,210,248],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Credit-Unions.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Jaqueline Bargmann","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/j-bargmann"},"yoast_head":"\nCredit Unions: What You Need to Know - General Information<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Credit unions are cooperative financial organization which are owned by their customers. 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As cooperatives are owned by their members, members are responsible for electing the board of directors. The board, in turn, manage the credit to handle the management of the credit union. While legislation regarding credit unions varies internationally, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electoral research"","img":{"alt_text":"Essentials about credit union elections","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Credit-Unions.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5297,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/history-credit-unions","url_meta":{"origin":5259,"position":1},"title":"History of Credit Unions in North America","date":"12\/07\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The history of credit unions depicts an important change in financial and cooperative services. In the 19th century, credit unions started to offer affordable banking and loan services to customers\u00a0and paved the way for a\u00a0fairer financial market. Read more about the history of credit unions in our second blog article.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electoral research"","img":{"alt_text":"Essentials about credit union elections","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Credit-Unions.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4284,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/cooperatives-basics","url_meta":{"origin":5259,"position":2},"title":"What you need to know about Cooperatives","date":"14\/02\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In our first blog series on cooperatives, we will introduce you to what they are and the different forms they take. Read on to learn more. A cooperative (also known as co-operative or co-op) is a business that is owned by its members. These members can be normal people, other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electoral research"","img":{"alt_text":"Winning Candidates in Cooperatives' Election organization","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/genossenschaften_digitale_Mitbestimmung-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4352,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/cooperatives-history","url_meta":{"origin":5259,"position":3},"title":"History of Cooperatives","date":"23\/02\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here you can read all about the history of cooperatives, why they became a common business practice and some of the interesting stories behind their development in the 19th and 20th centuries. Read on to learn more! 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Ultimately, much of the laws and customs regarding cooperatives vary on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electoral research"","img":{"alt_text":"Read more about successful election management in associations","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Electoral_Research.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5336,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/election-organization-credit-unions","url_meta":{"origin":5259,"position":5},"title":"Credit Unions: Successful Election Organization","date":"10\/08\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"All\u00a0credit union elections need to be carefully planned and\u00a0organized. This is often\u00a0a demanding task where mistakes can easily be made, leading to members losing trust in the credit union. Have a look at the practical tips we've put together for your election organization and make your next election a smooth-running\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election Management"","img":{"alt_text":"Essentials about credit union elections","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Credit-Unions.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5259"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5283,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5259\/revisions\/5283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}