The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) held its 2008 World Credit Union Conference on July 13-16, 2008 in Hong Kong. This is an annual conference meant to gather key players throughout the global credit union community in order to promote networking and discussion of best practices. Credit unions are democratic, member-owned financial cooperatives that operate as not-for-profits and use excess earnings to offer members affordable loans, returns on savings, low fees and access to other banking-style products and services. The WOCCU consists of 49,000 credit unions with over 177 million members in 96 different countries. The mission of the WOCCU is to assist its members and potential members to efficiently and successfully develop and run credit unions worldwide, empowering populations through access to quality and affordable financial services.
The conference had 1300 attendees from 48 different countries and included both general and break-out discussion sessions. Major speakers included: Paul Sarbanes, former U.S. Senator and co-author of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (an act establishing new regulation for public company information sharing), various WOCCU chairmen and directors, as well as credit union leaders and members of a number of countries’ central banks.
Session topics covered almost every aspect of credit union operations and culture including issues of good governance, market trends, technology and security, board member retention, marketing, third-party liability, training, growth strategies, regional trends, challenges of competing with internet banking options, mobile banking, leadership, lobbying, branding, sustainable development, and urbanization. The next conference is planned for July, 2009 and will be held in Barcelona, Spain.
Additional Resources:
Congressional Bioguide:
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=s000064
WOCCU Homepage
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