MADISON, Wis.-Credit unions' ethical leadership has given them both integrity and strength during the current financial crisis, according to Melvin Edwards, the outgoing chairman of the World Council. But credit unions can gain even greater influence by speaking as a single global body, he said, supporting credit unions in developing countries and increasing influence worldwide.
"Credit unions are engines of social and economic development, and too many governments have missed the value of their influence," said Edwards, a native of St. Kitts & Nevis whose two-year term as WOCCU chair concludes in July at WOCCU's World Credit Union Conference in Barcelona, Spain. "Credit unions everywhere need to recognize that we exist as a global movement, and we need to speak in one voice."
