We take a deep dive into World Council of Credit Unions’ strategic focus on climate resilience and sustainable finance this month.

We start at Sicredi Pioneira, a credit union based in Nova Petropolis, Brazil that is leading the way on solar energy. You’ll hear all about how they are helping members access financing for solar projects, and how they are leading by example as well—powering many of their own credit unions with 100 percent clean energy from the sun.

World Council wants to help more credit unions get to where Sicredi Pioneira is today. Thom Belekevich, World Council Director of Member Services, shares more on our strategy to promote climate resilience and sustainable finance across the global credit union movement.

World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) joined the rest of the world in celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8. And since this is also Women’s History Month, WOCCU is focusing this episode on the ways our organization helps women in the global credit union community through our programs and projects, and how we’re doing in terms of gender equality within our own organization.

We’ll hear from a variety of voices, including the women who lead WOCCU, a woman who has made strides to become the leader she is today because of the Global Women’s Leadership Network, the women who have assisted on WOCCU international projects focused on women’s initiatives, and even from one of the men in our organization who has led on women’s issues.

With February 2023 marking the somber one-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we look back on how several projects and entities have worked with Ukrainian credit unions to keep them resilient and open to members. 

That includes the World Council of Credit Unions/USAID Credit for Agriculture Producers' (CAP) Project, which works with partner credit unions to ensure their member farmers have loans, so they can continue producing food during the war. Ivan Vyshnevskiy, a Ukrainian citizen who serves as Deputy Chief of Party for the CAP Project, talks about how project staff have not only helped those credit unions continue to lend, but to even help agricultural lending outperform every other credit union loan sector since the war began.

Plus, Mike Reuter, Executive Director of Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions (WFCU), discusses the response from credit union leaders around the world who have donated nearly $2 million to WFCU's Ukrainian Credit Union Displacement Fund. More than $600,000 from that fund has already been sent to Ukraine to help credit unions maintain operations and to provide needed support to the farmers themselves.

Finally, Anatoli Murha, Senior Vice President of Ukrainian Selfreliance Federal Credit Union and a member of the Ukrainian-American Credit Union Association, discusses the massive outpouring of financial support from the Ukrainian-American credit union sector, and the difference that has made in Ukraine. 

2023 nominations are now open for a pair of World Council of Credit Unions’ annual awards. The Digital Growth Award recognizes one or more member credit union associations or member credit unions for implementing digital solutions that promote financial inclusion, innovation and scalability.

Diana Cazacu, a financial inclusion and digitalization expert who will serve as a Digital Growth Award judge for the second straight year, explains some of the things she and the other judges will be looking for when they review nominations this spring.

Nominations are also open for the Distinguished Service Award, which World Council has handed out since 1986 to recognize individuals or institutions for outstanding contributions to credit union development outside their home country. World Council Executive Communications Manager Laura Mihm discusses the Distinguished Service Award nomination process and why it is so unique in the credit union industry.

Recipients of both awards will receive complimentary registration to the 2023 World Credit Union Conference in Vancouver, Canada, where the respective awards will be presented.

After an optimistic start to the year, the global credit union movement was hit with multiple crises, including Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and soaring inflation worldwide. In this final episode of 2022, we look back at how World Council of Credit Unions helped its members navigate those pressures, while still offering education and networking events and managing to boost the livelihoods of vulnerable populations in Ukraine and elsewhere. We also look ahead to 2023 with plans based on a new strategy focused on growing credit union digitalization, climate and sustainability solutions and building resilient livelihoods.  

We’re focusing on Canada this month through interviews with:

· Jeff Guthrie, President and CEO of the Canadian Credit Union Association(CCUA) and the newest member of World Council of Credit Unions’ (WOCCU) Board of Directors.

· Mani Sheppard-Luangkhot, Manager, Financial Access Programs, Assiniboine Credit Union (ACU) in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Jeff Guthrie joins the podcast to discuss both of his roles, which are new in 2022, and how he hopes to bring his expertise in payments to help the global credit union movement. He also discusses CCUA co-hosting the 2023 World Credit Union Conference in his hometown of Vancouver next July.

Mani Sheppard-Luangkhot has one of the coolest and perhaps most impactful jobs in our entire movement. She discusses her role at ACU, which focuses on the financial inclusion of indigenous, migrant and other underserved populations—and why she hopes her interview will inspire more credit unions to add positions like hers.

Despite year-to-year growth in overall membership and total assets for the global credit union movement, World Council of Credit Unions’ (WOCCU) 2021 Statistical Report shows major gaps in key product and service offerings have resulted in different priorities and risk concerns for credit unions in different parts of the world.

As of December 31, 2021, there were a total of 393,871,631 members of 87,914 credit unions worth $3.48 trillion in assets across 118 countries.

Along with providing statistics on members, assets, savings and loans, the 2021 Statistical Report also features first-time data sets on credit union:

On Episode 18 of the Global Credit Union Podcast, we take a deep dive into the data with Steven Rick, Chief Economist for CUNA Mutual Group, and Dalia Mehiar, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Program Manager for World Council. We discuss some the regional differences and disparities, trends and surprises that come out of all those numbers.

This month’s featured guest is Diana Dykstra, who was just named Chair of World Council of Credit Unions’ Board of Directors in July. A six-year veteran of the WOCCU Board, Dykstra has more than 40 years of experience in leading top organizations in the financial services industry.

She is currently the President and CEO of the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues, and previously served as President and CEO of San Francisco Fire Credit Union and Coasthills Federal Credit Union. During her tenure as Senior Vice President at Golden 1 Credit Union, Diana led her team to develop the prototype of the now successful Credit Union Direct Lending—more commonly known CU Direct.

She joins the Podcast to talk about what leadership means to her, why it is important that World Council now has two women at the top of the organization and how WOCCU can lead the global credit union movement in some key strategic areas.

The theme for International Credit Union Day 2022 is "Empower Your Financial Future with a Credit Union." 

World Council of Credit Unions is looking forward to celebrating that theme on Thursday, October 20. World Council and Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions are leading the way in asking for credit unions to share their member empowerment stories on ICU Day, while Worldwide Foundation Executive Director Mike Reuter is also leading an Empower Campaign to raise $500,000 the global credit union movement. He joins WOCCU DIrector of Communications Greg Neumann on this episode to discuss that. If you want to learn more about the Empower Campaign, you can email [email protected].

Plus, we share an example of one such empowerment story from Ukraine, where a credit union association empowered an employee of one of its member credit unions to improve her safety and financial future. That employee, Oksana Hovorushchenko shares her personal story with us.

To learn more about International Credit Union Day 2022, visit woccu.org/icuday.

Episode 15 of the Global Credit Union Podcast examines the global food security crisis caused by COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and climate change and looks at whether credit unions can provide more solutions to help local food producers.

Jacob Kirkegaard, nonresident senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) and resident senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States, joins the program to discuss the current issues with the globalization of our food supply. 

Arthur Faviero, structural operations and sustainable finance specialist with Sicredi, the largest credit union system in Brazil, also joins the program to talk about the innovative agribusiness solutions they have created and whether they can serve as a model for credit unions worldwide. If you're interested in learning more about Sicredi's innovative agribusiness solutions, you can email Arthur at [email protected].