13 the Regional Meeting and “Youth workshop

Start Date : 2012-09-03
End Date : 2011-09-07

The deregulation of financial market is creating more competition to cooperative financial institution.  Today, players could expect short-lived financial services in the market.  All players have to be innovative and creative simply because of the consumerism behavior of the market.  

Financial service is the main product of the credit union and these services should be delivered in accordance of what members’ want.  Any kind of service should be tailored made.  Today, Board of Directors cannot assume on members’ need.  It has to be packaged according to the needs of the different segment of the market.   Further, credit union cannot be relevant if it has not addressed the needs of its members.  If the services were what the market want, thus there would be sustained growth and viability of the credit union.

In reality the products and services of the credit union are still very traditional.  It has failed to position itself in the market as one of the choices for financial services.  It is still seen as cheap credit and savings as collateral for loans.  In this situation, credit unions are seen as credit institution.

The youth market segment is a strategic area in developing product. In fact, credit union membership is 45 and above and it is really ageing.  Credit unions still need to exert its effort in bringing youth as members and leaders as well.  Youth is the largest market segment of the credit union market.  By bringing the youth as users of credit union services, it would be able to teach young people the value of savings at early age.