Two representatives of the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) have met with credit unions in Iran. WOCCU Chairman L.R. (Bobby) McVeigh and Interim CEO Brian Branch visited the country's credit unions as part of a broader effort to build CUs in other Islamic environments, including the Philippines, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
According to WOCCU, there are currently 1,600 credit unions in Iran serving an estimated five-million members.
WOCCU said that after the Islamic Revolution and fall of the Shah, commercial banks were nationalized. Personal financial services were difficult for most people to access, and credit unions grew very rapidly.
Most are small closed bond groups of less than 5,000 members, although one CU reportedly has at least 40,000 members and another has at least one-million members. Branch and McVeigh met with Parliamentary, Ministry and Central Bank officials about how credit unions around the world are supervised.
