LOS ANGELES - A delegation of 11 CEOs and board chairmen from state cooperative banks of India visited Nevada’s Community One FCU and California’s Water and Power Community CU, following visits to CUs in New York, Washington and CUNA Mutual in Madison, Wis. According to WOCCU, India’s cooperative banks are structured similarly to credit unions. Currently, the government of India, with support from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, is in the process of a $3.4 billion reform and re-capitalization of its financial sector. The delegation participants visited the United States and Canada to learn how they can create autonomous financial cooperatives, as well as learn how credit unions are governed and regulated, among other processes responsibilities, including those of Branch Services, the Call Center, Lending, Marketing, and Accounting.
The Indian financial cooperative system is more than 100 years old and is the largest movement in the world in terms of number of institutions and individuals served. In 1906 Edward Filene visited India and was so moved by what he saw that it added to his motivation to start the U.S. credit union system, WOCCU noted. (c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
