Senator Maxine McClean

A burden rests on small, successful credit unions to evolve as financial institutions for the benefit of members in terms of “Financial Literacy” and “Sound decision making”.

This advice comes from the then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Senator Maxine McClean, who was addressing the gathering at the opening of the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill) Co-operative Credit Union Limited, in the CARICOM Research Office Block, last Saturday.

Ms. McClean said that the movement of the credit union to its new location was done at a time when the institution is of significant importance to the region.   “And this places considerable responsibility on us in the movement to ensure that, as the single institution owned by Caribbean people, we need to develop all opportunities for our membership to grow in financial capacity, not only in saving and borrowing, but also as far as financial literacy and sound decision-making is concerned,” she added.

While she was happy to point to the success of the movement in mobilising financial resources, Senator McClean said “the time has come for us to take that movement to another level where we not only provide basic kinds of financial services such as savings in the traditional sense of retirement savings plans; where members are empowered to see opportunities where they can build on that concept of pooling to enhance their investments outside of the traditional  areas, to explore and invest in areas which will build this economy in several ways”.

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