Credit Union Foundation Australia
Police Credit Union believes that everybody deserves access to affordable financial services. That's why Police Credit Union proudly sponsors the Credit Union Foundation Australia (CUFA) in the development of credit unions in the Asia Pacific region, enabling poor families to improve their conditions. CUFA helps credit union members in the Asia Pacific region free themselves of debt bondage to unscrupulous money lenders, ensure safety of their savings and experience financial security for their family.
Police Credit Union has been giving generously to Credit Union Foundation Australia (CUFA) for many years to support the international projects. With our support, CUFA have been able to operate successful international credit union development projects. Here is a look at some of our member success stories from Cambodia:
Cambodia : Rebuilding a Financial System
Imagine going to your credit union for a loan only to be told you would be put on a waiting list to get the money you need; that's the situation for many people in Cambodia who want to improve their lives.
With no share insurance and past bank frauds, people hesitate to put more than a small part of their savings in a bank, so they continue to build wealth in rice, cattle or gold jewellery. This lack of trust makes it difficult for credit unions (sometimes called savings banks in Cambodia ) to build capital and make loans back to members.
Combine this low liquidity with employee wages of less than a dollar a day (a key poverty indicator), manual records and many people fighting just to survive following decades of war, and you can see the challenges facing the very new Cambodian credit union system.
Yet visitors to Cambodian credit union from the CUFA in January could feel the optimism as people were using their meager savings and small loans to grow small businesses and work together to pull their communities out of this post-communist economy. The financial system was completely wiped out during the holocaust killing fields in 1975 as the Khmer Rouge came to power. The CUFA in partnership with Police Credit Union has a vision to restructure the micro credit system for people helping people in the member-owned financial cooperatives model.
 Chhanna Soy belongs to one of the largest credit unions in Cambodia, Khum Chrey Savings Bank. Chhanna had a business repairing tape recorders and televisions until a marriage in the family meant he'd be competing with a brother in law, so he wanted to start a business selling and repairing cellular telephones. He used his savings to buy land on the highway, but needed funds to buy inventory and equipment. Using his house as collateral for the 12-month loan of 4.5 million riel ($1,100US), he will pay it off early in one lump sum. He also saves monthly at the credit union; his goal is to save 10,000 riel ($2.50US) a month, which is ten times the amount required of borrowers. He already has plans to borrow again to grow the business with a second loan to expand his inventory.
 Preh Netpreh Savings Bank is an example of the building success of the credit union movement in Cambodia . Formed by national organizers going door to door in 1998, the credit union already boasts 1,600 members. Members are required to save monthly except during the dry farming season. Their membership is about two thirds women, as finances traditionally fall to women in this culture.
The credit union operates out of the home of a director and owns four file cabinets, a desk, safe, bench, and white board. Their largest purchase is a piece of land on which they plan to build a building in the next few years.
|
