Confidence in the operation and the level of management are two of the main things a person looks for when contemplating becoming a client or member of a financial institution.
Manager of the Communal Co-operative Credit Union, Mr. Brian Michael Campbell said add to that, quality in the services and the product delivered if these factors are favorable the potential member/client will feel a sense of comfort in the organization knowing that their funds are safe.
The Communal’s strategy seems to be working because for this 2006/2007 year, the second time in three years the institution has been adjudged the most outstanding credit union in Grenada over the past year.
This accolade was presented at the 2007 Credit Union Day rally held recently at the Morne Rouge Playing Field.
The manager went on to say that sometimes a financial institution attracts money because people have a certain level of expectation from the management of the organization and this can sometimes be a significant drawing card.
The Communal manager said his institution does get comments that people are happy with the level of services offered and it is now important to keep the edge by making sure staff is properly trained to continue to deliver.
He said the credit union has been spending money on staff training especially in the area of customer service, this involves putting the right people up front since what happens outside is dependent on what happens on the inside.
When Campbell took over as general manager of the Communal in May 2003 he brought with him an aggressive approach to business and a vision for the development of the credit union having been on the executive before becoming manager.
After three and a half years the organization has grown significantly.  Delinquency has moved from around 10% to at last Annual General Meeting 2.12%.
The loan portfolio has increased significantly Campbell said, an attribute to the hard work of the loans department and the Credit Committee.
Membership in the Communal has also been on the rise. Campbell said when he took over the credit union there were 6,376 members, there are now over 10,000 members on record approximately 9,600 of whom do active business with the credit union, a significant achievement by any standards.
These figures represent the registering of approximately 100 members on average per month for the past two or three years, phenomenal.
The manager said this has to say something for the organization since no other credit union registers a hundred members a month. The Communal is not an employee based credit union and therefore has no guaranteed membership base having therefore to compete on the open market.
Campbell explains this by saying it goes back to the confidence that people have in the organization. He said people work hard for their money and when they deposit it with a financial institution they want to make sure that it is 100% secure.

PARTICIPANTS AT THE MERGER OF PERDMONTEMPS

2007 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS

 

They therefore look at the people who manage the organization, the people who make up the board of directors and if they feel confident that these people can deliver then they are attracted to the organization.
The Board of Directors meets monthly and consistently reviews the operations, financial reports and business analyses which are prepared and presented to the board which issues directives to the management. The President of the board is Mr. Julien Ogilvie.
The Communal is open bond, it welcomes anybody to join and that is a benefit to the institution.
As manager Campbell ensures that he acts within the rules and regulations and the by-laws governing the credit union so that the organization he heads is run very prudently and members can reap maximum benefits from its operation.
The Communal manager brings to his job almost 25 years of work experience in Jamaica at all different levels including working for a number of financial institutions including bank of Jamaica, on a consultancy assignment.
Those opportunities he said gave him insights into systems, documentation, ensuring that things work at a reasonable level to produce the results that are required.
He has the ability to identify weaknesses and then tries his best to rectify things, ensure that what is available to him functions and believes that one must work with an aim and a vision of where one wants to put the organization that one is working with. This he thinks is absolutely necessary if one is to work with focus and drive.
Campbell said in a financial institution everyday is a challenge but one of the things that grabbed his attention on joining the Communal was the quality of management reports that were being submitted. That he said needed to be tidied up.
The delinquency problem as well he realized needed some attention and lots of progress has been made in that regard.
Another important factor the manager said is ensuring that the right quality of people is employed. He said the credit union is no longer a 5 million dollar business but a 40 million dollar business and that is a lot of asset to manage.
It is necessary therefore to ensure that the quality of staff you bring in is good enough to do the job effectively thereby easing the burden on the manager so he can then pay attention to other important aspects of the business outside of day to day operation.

Campbell’s aim is to take the organization to, in his words, a place where it can hold its own against any credit union in Grenada or outside of Grenada.
Asked about the Communal winning the credit union of the year award the manager said the main factors for this include the significant growth in membership over the years and his institution’s adherence to the benchmarks set up by the World Council of Credit Unions called the PEARLS ratio.
This process takes into account protection, earnings, asset management, returns, liquidity etc. and obviously after the assessment was done the Communal stood ahead of the rest.
This institution has been able to manage assets in such a way that its reserves grew by some 1 million dollars in two years while its assets grew from 28 million to 37 million dollars (Net) in the same period.
This response by the public Campbell said must be saying something about sound management, sound policies and good service all of which add up to an advancing organization.
The staff has to be complemented for the excellent effort they put out in meeting the needs of the members.
The Communal boss has no intention of sitting on his laurels and being satisfied with the results but said the institution has to ensure that it keeps the structures in place, keep on reviewing, establish its mission and make sure the mission meets the needs of  the members.
The Communal is driven by the recognition that superior service is important since most credit unions offer more or less the same products.
As a result it invests money in regular customer service training and training for staff involved in loans processing so that members are dealt with as efficiently and expeditiously as possible.