Understanding Credit Union Ideals and Their Implications

Now even if it took some industries years to catch on, this emphasis on service comes as no surprise to credit unions. Service has been at the heart of credit unions' mission since the very beginning of the credit union movement.

Let me quote from a CUNA publication entitled "Credit Unions: A World of Difference":

At credit unions, the highest priority is put on people. This means close personal service for all members regardless of the size of their deposits. This also means arranging loans for the jobless, providing credit counseling, encouraging thrift among young people, even helping to revitalize inner-city neighborhoods."

The fact is, you in the credit union movement hold yourselves to a very demanding standard. Service, according to the credit union philosophy, extends to much more than getting good feedback on a customer questionnaire. Service is also about service to the broader community.

I think the World Council of Credit Unions expresses this ideal very well in its Statement of Credit Union Operating Principles:

"Credit unions seek to bring about human and social development. . . . The credit union ideal is to extend service to all who need and can use it. Every person is either a member or a potential member and appropriately part of the credit union sphere of interest and concern. Decisions should be taken with full regard for the interest of the broader community within which the credit union and its members reside."

Every time a credit union makes a loan to someone to help them get through difficult financial times, that credit union is reaffirming its commitment to serving the community. It gives hope and opportunity to one person, but in so doing it gives strength to the entire community. Credit union members understand that cooperation and mutual self-help are also about achieving a higher goal. They're about helping each other so that we have better places to live, more prosperous communities, and more opportunities to succeed.

The Clinton Administration shares this ideal of service. And the Administration has a deep respect for the values of the credit union movement -- values like service, self-improvement, cooperation, mutual self-help, and equality. The Administration has translated those shared values into real policies and programs.

Think about the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which fosters community-based lending to help revitalize distressed communities in urban and rural areas around the United States. Think about Americorps -- a voluntary program that gives young Americans an opportunity to serve their communities in exchange for college funding. I could go on about the Administration's focus on making investments in people -- in job training and education -- but I think I've made my point. These programs are all about serving people and their communities.

Let's not forget how this approach differs from that of the two previous Administrations, in charge from 1981 through 1992. They took a very different view of cooperative enterprises like credit unions. They had an ideological distaste for them. They seemed to think that credit unions had no legitimate place in our free-market system. But we in this Administration believe that cooperative enterprise is valuable, and legitimate, and important. We want credit unions to do well, just as we want conventional for-profit financial institutions to do well. The various types of financial institutions -- all of them -- have important roles in our nation's financial system. They help meet people's needs for financial services, and they give consumers a choice.