RMT CREDIT UNION PAYS 3.5 PER CENT DIVIDEND

It has been a good year for the RMT Credit Union and the annual general meeting in the union’s headquarters recorded its thanks to all the volunteers and staff in the finance department who run the organisation. The great thing about the RMT Credit Union is the membership decides what we do with our money. Delegates decide on a combination of interest paid to our savers(the dividend) and the prudent accumulation of a reserve. So, we decide how much to pay out as a reward to our members and how much to keep aside in order to build, strengthen and develop our Credit Union. Having created a surplus for the year after tax and other considerations the AGM decided to pay a dividend to members’ savings of 3.5 per cent. The Christmas Club received a two per cent dividend. We were also able to provide £17,500 to the general reserve in order to build for the future. We hope that 2009 will be another year of growth and that all RMT members will join us so that we can create our own financial organisation as an alternative to all those banks that have let working people down so often. MEMBERSHIP GROWTH Membership at the end of the year ending September stood at just over a thousand members, representing a membership growth of 40 per cent. This growth is encouraging but we want more RMT members to join us and help us to build our own democratic not-for-profit financial institution. The Credit Union is a mutual savings and loans organisation and the chief role of the Board is the safe and effective stewardship of our money. The AGM take the board’s reports and takes decisions on developing the organisation. At the close of the reporting year the financial position was: • £905,000 in savings • A loan book of £581,000 • Total assets are £1million • An operating surplus of over £56,000 These numbers demonstrate that our members continue to trust their Credit Union with their investments and that we are capable of the responsible stewardship of their funds. FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE We generate the surplus comes from two areas. Firstly, the interest we charge on loans to our borrowing members and, secondly, from the interest we receive from our own bank and investment accounts. On our loans, we have two levels of interest. For members borrowing in excess of their savings account we are charging the credit union standard of 12.68 per cent APR. For members that borrow up to their savings levels we provide a Guarantee Loan rate of 7.9 per cent APR. But we only charge interest on the declining balance and members can make extra payments at any time to save on interest. CHRISTMAS AND SUMMER HOLIDAY CLUBS Many members took up the chance to join our savings clubs which pay out for Christmas and Summer holiday periods. The Christmas Club paid out at a good time for the Christmas splurge and had accumulated nearly £30,000. The Summer Holiday Club is growing steadily and will also pay out at a good time for the holidays in 2009. ECONOMIC CLIMATE Everyone’s aware of the difficult economic situation and it presents both opportunities and potential perils for our Credit Union. Many RMT members will view the Credit Union as an organisation that they can trust. We hope that leads to a growth in membership and will help us to develop our services and benefits for the good of our members and of our trade union. While we are more than happy to help people with their financial arrangements, we must not get into risky lending practices and we should not contribute to heaping more debt onto people who cannot afford it. RMT CREDIT UNION PAYS 3.5 PER CENT DIVIDEND RMT Credit Union chair Mick Lynch reports on the recent RMT CU annual general meeting and its decision to pay a dividend to members RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: february 2009 :: RMTnews 28