CEO Barry on Credit Union being at heart of community
SINCE the mid-1960s, Sligo Credit Union has been at the heart of the community.
And since October 2020 it is at the beating heart of Sligo town in the beautiful, iconic grey building that was the Clarence Hotel on Wine Street.
This €3m investment is money well spent, as genial CEO Barry O’Flynn explains in an interview with the Sligo Weekender. In the past five years the Credit Union has lent close to €100m into the local economy.
“We are proud that we have our first female chairperson in Shona Heffernan,” said Barry.
Barry and his staff were formerly located in Stephen Street, but it simply did not have the space or the privacy to cater for the increasing growing number of members, as Barry explains.
“We needed somewhere bigger as the numbers of members joining us and the amount of uptake we had on lending, in particular, meant that the building on Stephen Street was no longer suitable.
“It was clear to us that we could not deliver the type of service that members wanted, and we had outgrown it.”
He added: “Over a three-year period we looked at a lot of premises options in Sligo, but the options that we required were that the new building would have to give privacy and comfort to members. “We want them to keep coming into us so we needed a building that met their needs and that it provided a safe place for our staff to work from and for our directors and officers to come in comfort to us and meet in private. “Ultimately the old Clarence Hotel was the building we identified and it is lovely that we had VHA Architects in Sligo who were really helpful, really good builders in Sammon Bros and we used a lot of Sligo tradespeople as well. “The work was done during the first lockdown. ‘The façade of the building is protected and some of the inside of the building is protected as well, and we did not want to change anything. We wanted to enhance this very iconic Sligo building.
“We are very happy with the inside as our members can come in and there is the social distancing we need. “We could not have survived in Stephen Street much longer and we are now in a lovely building in Wine Street.”
“In the Credit Union we want our customers to come in, our banking system does not want customers to come with the big emphasis in online banking and closures. But we want our members to come in and be treated with dignity and respect.” The process in selecting the building went on over a period of several years. The refurbishment started in January 2020 and Sligo Credit Union’s new home was ready in October 2020. “The building work lasted for nine months which included an element of lockdown, but what we have is here for the Credit Union’s lifetime.
“Our members own this building and many of our members remember where it all began in John Street and then to Stephen Street. Our members have a great sense of pride when they come into the building, and that was lovely to see.
“It is great to see that pride evident in the members who can say this is what our Credit Union has achieved, but this does not belong to any faceless people or whatever.
“The Credit Union is owned fully by its members.”
The building cost around €3m. Barry reckons it is an ideal place for the Credit Union.
“Our pandemic will come and go and it will be great to have face to face consultations with our members.
“At the moment we can’t do that, but the intention is that when normality returns it will be possible to be face to face with our customers.
“We are keen to keep that facility. “People can talk to us at our cash desks where they are perspex screens and we have an audio loop for people who are hard of hearing.” He added: “We now have around 25,000 members, many from Sligo town but also from the county and from south Donegal and north Leitrim.
“We have a lot of people who work in Sligo town.
“Our total assets at present are around €94m.
“That is a big figure and it has grown a lot.
“It is because we have a huge upsurge in members joining us and it has been increasing by around
1,000 per year over the past number of years.
“Not all our members come into us but we look after them when they come in and that is not pushing them towards lodgement machines when they do come in.
“It was always the great strength of the Credit Union that it has always been very much part of the community.
“We were talking to Tommie Gorman recently and he always makes the point that Sligo Rovers is a co-operative just like the Credit Union.
“We are both coming from the same community and serving the same community and we both try to enhance the lives of the community in different ways.
“The co-operative element was always very strong in Irish life in the past, spirit of the meitheal or team or the adage ní neart go cur le chéile – there is no strength without unity.
“It is good to think that there are co-operatives such as ourselvesthat provide value and meet a need that their members have without profit being their primary motivator.”
“Our priority is lending so we encourage members to save with us. “The Credit Union was formed with a very simple premise, to serve the needs of its members.
“Most of its members going back to the 1960s, their requirement is that they have something that they need in their life and that may the education of their children, the replacement of a car, home improvement, a holiday, Communion, Confirmation or back to school expenses. It could be anything and everything.
“The purpose of the Credit Union was to give access to credit at a fair and reasonable rate and that is still our aim.
“What we like to see is to be able to enable people to get the things that they might not otherwise be able to afford, but things that are essential in their lives.
“Apart from a mortgage or a business loan I haven’t borrowed from anywhere other than the Credit Union in over 20 years.
“Many members are the same, they rely on us to meet their needs.
‘We have a savings cap at the moment of €20,000, which we are not happy about.
“To protect the Credit Union we simply have to limit the amount of savings.
“The regulatory requirement is that we have to create reserves
“Illegal money lending is still a factor in Sligo. Owing money to illegal money lenders creates all sorts of issues and we appeal to people, please do not go down that road”
based on our balance sheet and the more it grows through savings, the more reserves we need to create, and those reserves may come from our earnings.
“If our savings get too high, we have to limit them.
“We would like to be able to double that figure to €40,000 but we are bound by the rules.”
Traditionally, the Credit Union was and still is a great facility for working-class people on lower incomes, but it has spread its wings in recent years. “When it was founded in 1960s the banks were not interested in lending to ordinary people, and we were the only option.
“It was established to allow ordinary people that they did not have to wear a suit and tie when they came in looking for a loan.
“There were legal and illegal money lenders who continue to charge huge crippling interest rates.”
The moneylenders are still a “social evil” according to Barry.
“It has been with us and in every country and society in the world.
“We have legal and illegal moneylenders to contend with.”
He hinted that the government had no reason to allow legal moneylenders who can charge exorbitant interest rates.
“I see no reason why the state should allow legal money lending rates of up to 187 per cent.
“I see no reason why they have to do that in a modern society.
“There is no reason why this is justifiable and especially from a moral point of view.
“It is the people with little choices that suffer. We have always encouraged our members to borrow from us and not to take the easy option of door credit where somebody knocks on your door with cash and says it is only €20 per week.
“But the cost of a legal money lender’s loan of €1,000 is about €450 in the year, while the amount in the year from the Credit Union is €45.
“So, even though it is just €20 per week, you are paying that €20 for much longer than you need to.” Moneylenders zone in on vulnerable families. but Barry believes the country has a duty to stop the rates charged by legal moneylenders.
“It makes no sense apart from the morality of it and I think there has to be a will there to protect people from that type of borrowing.
‘It is just not acceptable.”
He added: “Illegal money lending is still absolutely a factor in Sligo and it puts people of all ages in major stress and they can be trapped.
“Owing money to illegal money lenders creates all sorts of issues and we would appeal to people, please do not go down that road.
“Please come to the Credit Union those situations are not healthy and not good and they put people in very intimidatory and vulnerable positions.
‘The Credit Union is there for everybody.
“We have had people who were in the clutches of illegal money lenders and we try and help those members in whatever way we can to get away from that.
“But it is a crime and people should report it to the gardai who are very good is these situations.”
He added: “Our lowest rates of interest on loans are 4.7 per cent but the average is 8.5 per cent.
“Our average loan is €5,000 or €6,000, and others are not interested in such low sums but the interest rates in banks can be from 13 to 16 per cent. “Some institutions lend to people at different rates depending on how strong a borrower they are, but we charge the same rates to all our members.”
He added: “We do home improvements over €25,000 loans for 6.9 per cent and we do a welcome loan at 8 per cent.”
Last year Sligo Credit Union lent out €17m.
“What is good about that money is that is it saved in Sligo and lent to our members in Sligo and is predominantly spent with retail, with builders, with plumbers, with carpenters, with restaurants and with holidays and with all kinds of things in Sligo. “It is a real part of the local economy and over the past five years we have lent close to €100m into the local economy.
“That money reflects the people’s trust in the Credit Union, but also people’s trust in the town, for our car sales, our restaurants and bars, all the retailers that rely on the custom of the local people also.
“We all need a loan at some time or other and it is great to see that the Credit Union has been a big part of the glue in Sligo town and has been so for generations and will be for generations to come.”
He concluded: ‘It has been a hectic time over the past year with the pandemic.
“We never closed, and all of our staff of 27 and management were just great.”
“A lot of things have been put on hold and we will see the effect of this in the future.
“As the economy opens up, it is important that money is spent locally, and we have some great unique businesses in Sligo.
“There is a circle in Sligo, and we need to try and keep money in that circle as far as possible to keep our town living, breathing and thriving as it should be.”
Credit where credit is due to Barry O’Flynn and Sligo Credit Union.