Diaspora leaders note growth of credit unions in Ukraine (09/18/05)

Diaspora leaders note growth of credit unions in Ukraine

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Credit unions in Ukraine are rapidly growing their membership but still require more support and strengthening from the Ukrainian diaspora.

Currently, there are 711 credit unions with more than 942,000 Ukrainian members, a 20 percent increase during the first half of 2005, according to Walter Kish, field manager of the Ukrainian Credit Union Strengthening Project. Their assets total more than $277 million.

About 20 percent of these credit unions belong to the National Association of Credit Unions in Ukraine (NACUU).

"We have been working with NACUU for almost a year and we will continue to work to strengthen it to make it a more representative organization so that instead of 20 percent belonging to it, there would be a majority," Mr. Kish said.

North American credit union leaders met with their Ukrainian counterparts at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy August 22 at an interim conference aimed at re-establishing relations after the Orange Revolution, said Bohdan Kekish, president of the Ukrainian World Cooperative Council (UWCC).

North American credit unions played an active role in the Orange Revolution.

Canadian credit unions raised more than $1.5 million to support the Revolution, said Olha Zawerucha Swyntuch, president of the Council of Ukrainian Credit Unions in Canada (CUCUC).

"To support the Orange Revolution, those people who gave their time to stand on the maidan for 13 days, more than $1 million was raised through Ukrainian credit unions in North America," said Bohdan Watral, president of the Ukrainian National Credit Union Association - U.S.A. (UNCUA).

President Viktor Yushchenko duly noted their contributions, dispatching an official to read a statement at their meeting.

"I can't say a good enough word about the support that you gave Ukraine in its crucial moment," Mr. Yushchenko's statement said. "I highly appreciate your feelings for your ancestral lands and your passionate wishes to be helpful for it."

"I am full of optimism as to the prospect of our cooperation in the sphere of future development of Ukraine's credit union cooperation," his statement said. "I am convinced that together we will help Ukraine become a wealthy, free, democratic nation."

NACUU President Petro Kozynets, reported that his organization, the largest collection of credit unions in Ukraine, includes 144 credit unions with 504,200 clients holding $70 million in assets.

He outlined several priorities for NACUU during the next five years, including obtaining official government status as a self-regulatory organization, changing the law to allow credit unions to expand their services, installation of a new computer program and introduction of electronic payments systems with plastic cards.

The CUCUC has 12 member-credit unions with 72,000 clients holding $1.1 billion in assets, Ms. Swyntuch said.

Eighteen credit unions with 98,500 clients holding $1.98 billion in assets belong to the UNCUA, Mr. Watral said.

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