How do you try to summarise a year like 2020? It’s been one to forget in many ways, and an unforgettable one in lots of others.
The first thing that comes to mind when looking back on the past year, despite the obvious challenges that the whole credit union sector has faced, is the remarkable resilience shown by so many. It’s so encouraging to know that in the midst of the most difficult year in recent memory, credit unions have stood firm for the benefit of their members.
The old saying of ‘adapt to survive’ has never been more apt. For a shining example of a dynamic, boundary-breaking credit union, take our friends at Bradford District Credit Union. You’ll certainly have seen their recent ‘Buy Nowt’ campaign, now in its fifth year of encouraging careful spending around the Black Friday/Cyber Monday craze.
The incuto Podcast
It was an absolute pleasure to speak with Ian Brewer, Financial Inclusion and Business Development officer at BDCU, for the first episode of our brand new podcast.
I first met Ian five years ago, and I instantly knew this was the type of guy that I would hit it off with. Anybody who knows me well will know that I love talking about what makes this sector so special, so what better way to catch up with friends and colleagues than producing our very own podcast.
In the episode, we talked about Ian’s journey from joining BDCU to now, and the obstacles and opportunities he’s dealt with along the way. I think what makes this episode really worth listening to, is what BDCU have done to raise their profile on a local, regional, and national level. As we’re all aware, not enough people actually know about credit unions in our communities, and the events that Ian and his team put on have a huge impact and raise awareness.
We have plenty more episodes planned and we can’t wait to share details of some exciting guests coming up - stay tuned!
Looking ahead to 2021
As this year comes to a close and we start to look towards the next, there’s plenty more to come from us at incuto. You might have heard us talking a lot about Faster Payments, and what it means for our credit union partners. We sent over £2 million of them in November, and we’ve been able to cut processing times dramatically for our customers’ bulk payments - in one case from 90 minutes, to just over 10.
It’s just one of the new and exciting things we’re bringing to the sector, and there’s plenty more where that came from too.
Finally, I’d like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year, from everybody at incuto. Hopefully it won’t be too far in the future when we can all meet again in person.
Andrew Rabbitt, CEO