Credit Union News - Carlos Calderon Visits Colombia with MDDCCUA and WOCCU

News about our Credit Unions, other Credit Unions, and about the Cooperative World

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During the last week of October the President of OAS Staff FCU mister Carlos Calderón travelled to Colombia as part of a delegation representing the Maryland and DC Credit Union Association (MDDCCUA), of which he is a past director, and in the company of representatives of the World Council of Credit Unions, WOCCU. Their visit had several purposes:

The delegates were invited to an official visit to the Colombian Parliament, where they met with political leaders, delegates and representatives of the credit union sector in Colombia.

Mr. Calderon (front, left) with the delegation,
 on their way to the Colombian Parliament

During this meeting all present discussed the current issues affecting the credit union movement in Colombia, and the delegates requested the assistance of all present to defend the rights to equal financial services of the millions of credit union members of Colombia.

The delegation met with Fecolfin, the Colombian guild that comprises financial cooperatives (credit unions among them). They signed, on behalf of MDDCUA an agreement with Fecolfín on subjects and agendas of both regarding the defense of financial cooperative rights in both nations, and regarding technical and guild/association common issues. This agreement also covers the potential channeling of resources to facilitate Colombia’s post-conflict. The event took place in Bucaramanga at the headquarters of Comultrasan, Colombia’s largest credit union, with US$490 million in assets and over 300,000 members.

Finally, the representatives of MDDCUA and WOCCU had a chance to meet with Colombian Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. The purpose of that meeting was to express their direct support to the Colombian Credit Union movement regarding equalization of Colombian Credit Unions’ rights with those of banks, which would allow them to offer some of the same services as banks, such as checking accounts, credit cards, and to improve on the Insurance Fund offered to their members -which currently requires higher premium for lesser coverage- than that by the government in the United States via NCUA (for credit unions) and FDIC (for banks).

This visit was a follow-up to the cooperation agreement signed in 2013 between Felcolfin and MDDCCUA, through WOCCU’s International Alliances Program