After the Scottish people voted to reject a referendum to gain independence from Great Britain Sept. 18, it was business as usual for Scotland's 106 credit unions.
The landmark no vote gave credit unions the certainty to plan ahead, knowing that the legislation will continue to originate from the British Parliament and regulation will be consistent across Scotland, England and Wales, Frank McKillop, policy manager at the Association of British Credit Unions Limited, in Manchester, England, said in an email interview with CU Times.
“Like the overall population, Scotland's credit union practitioners were split between 'yes' and 'no,'” he said. “So, while meeting with key government officials to ensure credit unions' interests were considered, ABCUL remained strictly neutral throughout this campaign.”
According to international media reports, 55% voted against the Scottish independence referendum and 45% voted for independence.
An online and telephone survey of 2,047 adults conducted by The Guardian, a British national daily newspaper, found that nearly half of the survey's respondents voted against the independence referendum because the “risk of becoming independent looked too great when it came to things like currency, European Union membership, the economy, jobs and prices.”
McKillop pointed out that had Scotland voted to become an independent country, it would have created a number of issues involving regulations, deposits guarantees, cross-border operations and other issues around currency variation and placing deposits with British banks.
He described Scotland's credit union movement as thriving with 355,000 members and $762 million in assets.
A brochure for the World Council of Credit Unions Conference hosted in Glasgow, Scotland, in July 2011 boasted that the city was the credit union capital of Great Britain with 34 credit unions serving more than 120,000 members, or about one in five of Glasgow's 598,000 residents.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
