Explain Why Credit Unions Are Not-For-Profit Financial Cooperatives

776 Words4 Pages

Question: Credit Unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives that exist to serve members, not generate profit. “People helping people” is the philosophical foundation of these institutions. What do you see as the value of this foundation? Please explain. In addition: What makes your credit union different than a for-profit financial institution? How does your credit union demonstrate credit unions’ “people helping people” philosophy? If you ran your credit union, what is one initiative program you would implement? Joshua Flores 1/9/16 The Municipal Credit Union has been helping and serving people since its foundation in 1916. MCU was founded by John Purroy Mitchel, the mayor of New York City at the time, to help city employees find a way to save reasonable rates and have a low cost borrowing alternative towards loan sharks. With the MCU well on its way to growing bigger and better, it had started out with only one branch in the Municipal building using only handwritten ledgers. By the end of their first year, they had nineteen charter account holders who had combined deposits of $570. Today, …show more content…

This includes, health and dental coverage, life insurance coverage, short-term and long-term disability insurance as well as a defined retirement plan which is 100% funded by their employer. This is just a small portion of what the MCU offers to its members and it continues to grow bigger each day. With a supervisory committee of five members, a board of directors filled with thirteen members with the executive manager, the MCU has been the largest it’s ever been with an amazing staff that do the best they possibly can to help people within and outside of their union. Also, if I were to have my own credit union, I would want to implement the use of social media to help my union grow larger and overall more