Entrepreneurs to start up credit unions

Wednesday 08 August 2012

Entrepreneurs are fed up with the difficulty of getting bank credit and are planning to set up credit unions to solve the problem, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Wednesday.

The first of these financial organisations will begin in September under the name Midden-Nederland.

Credit unions are member-owned financial co-operatives, democratically controlled by the members and operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit at competitive rates and providing other financial services to the members.

Frustration

Midden-Nederland was formed when a group of entrepreneurs from Amersfoort and Gooi en Eemland had lunch together and found they shared one frustration: the lack of credit from banks, says the FD.

They have now set up a credit union whose members include a removal company, a pensions advice agency and a wine wholesaler.

Anyone applying for a loan will be carefully vetted. If the loan is agreed, the start-up company will be allocated an experienced entrepreneur or former banker as coach. These coaches will be members of the credit union with a stake in the success of the new business.

Plans are in hand for credit unions run by bakers, motoring organisation Bovag and entrepreneurs from Noord-west-Veluwe, says the FD.

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