World Council of Credit Unions

World Council of Credit Unions is the global trade association and development agency for credit unions. World Council promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services. World Council advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organizations and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation.

 

Jefferson Financial and WCOCU

Credit unions have always been about people helping people. From their creation in the United States in the early 1930s, credit unions were first formed by a cooperative spirit between people that typically worked for the same employer; they pooled their money together and lent to each other. Because that cooperative organizational structure exists to this day, credit unions continue to enjoy a tax exempt status; those savings are passed along to the members in the form of better rates on savings and lower rates on loan products.

In 2009, our State trade association, the Louisiana Credit Union League, and through their involvement with credit unions on a global scale, asked Jefferson Financial to be a mentor credit union to GESRO, a small but progressive credit union in Ghana, Africa.

Ghana has a growing credit union industry and GESRO is one of the biggest and fastest growing. GESRO’s CEO, Kusi Boachie visited the United States to further his credit union education and spent a week with Jefferson Financial’s management in 2010. Part of his visit included an exchange program that allowed Jefferson Financial CEO, Mark Rosa to visit the GESRO headquarters and branch offices early in 2011.

So far, the exchange has been very successful; ideas shared as part of these visits have given much appreciation to all involved. The employees and management of Jefferson Financial are honored to have been invited to participate in the World Council of Credit Union exchange program. We hope that we can continue to help other credit unions in need.