CCA to Implement WOCCU's PEARLS Development Tool

Toronto, Canada—At the special development session of the Canadian Credit Union Central Annual conference, the World Council of Credit Unions, Inc. (WOCCU) announced its commitment to cooperating with fellow cooperatives in the area of credit union development. In a joint presentation with the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) areas of future cooperation for the organizations were outlined.

One of the most significant announcements was that CCA would begin utilizing World Council's PEARLS Monitoring System in its development projects, adding PEARLS to their "tool box" of credit union development tools. The organization recently purchased WOCCU's patented technology and will soon begin utilizing PEARLS in their projects.

PEARLS is a financial performance monitoring system designed to offer management guidance for credit unions and other savings institutions. Credit unions, leagues, national association and regulators in both developed and developing countries currently use the system. WOCCU created PEARLS in the late 1980's and utilizes PEARLS with all of the credit unions participating in development projects around the world. PEARLS is attributed as one of the factors in the long-term sustainability of WOCCU's development projects and widely recognized by the development community as well as legislators and regulators around the world.

Arthur Arnold, WOCCU president and CEO noted, "We believe that sharing technology to build stronger credit union systems benefits everyone. WOCCU's goal is to provide quality credit unions for everyone and we feel that goal can only be reached through cooperation. CCA's willingness to use WOCCU's PEARLS system is a step forward in the international development of credit unions."

Jean Yves Lord, CCA executive director echoed similar comments, "WOCCU and the Canadian Co- operative Association are two of the leading credit union development organizations in the world. We share a common goal – to improve the lives of poor people around the world. It just makes sense that we should work together. "

Other joint activities between CCA and WOCCU include co-hosting World Council of Credit Unions Regional SACCA Congress, which will be held in Swaziland, October 11-15 and cooperatively bidding on credit union development projects together in the future.

El Consejo Mundial de Cooperativas de Ahorro y Crédito es la asociación gremial y agencia de desarrollo para el sistema internacional de cooperativas de ahorro y crédito. El Consejo Mundial promueve el crecimiento sustentable de las cooperativas de ahorro y crédito y otras cooperativas financieras en todo el mundo a fin de facultar a las personas para que mejoren su calidad de vida a través del acceso a servicios financieros asequibles y de alta calidad. El Consejo Mundial realiza esfuerzos de defensa activa en representación del sistema global de las cooperativas de ahorro y crédito ante organizaciones internacionales y trabaja con gobiernos nacionales para mejorar la legislación y la regulación. Sus programas de asistencia técnica introducen nuevas herramientas y tecnologías para fortalecer el desempeño financiero de las cooperativas de ahorro y crédito y profundizar su alcance comunitario.

El Consejo Mundial ha implementado 290 programas de asistencia técnica en 71 países. A nivel mundial, 51,000 cooperativas de ahorro y crédito en 100 países atienden a 196 millones de personas. Obtenga más información sobre el impacto global del Consejo Mundial en www.woccu.org.