Microcredit: Creating Access and Opportunities For More Colombians

Madison, WI — World Council of Credit Unions, Inc. (WOCCU) recently co-sponsored a microcredit conference entitled Microcredit: Creating Access and Opportunities for More Colombians with CONFECOOP, the Colombian credit union federation and ACCION in Bogotá, Colombia.

The conference, initiated by the WOCCU- Colombia project, highlighted the current progress of the project and demonstrated the success of microfinance and microcredit programs being introduced by credit unions. The four hundred and fifty credit union delegates that attended the conference also learned more about the importance of the United Nations Year of Microcredit. Topics addressed during the conference included: microfinance in Latin America, micro savings - key to the formulation of micro credit, microcredit best practices and financial disciplines, special supervision for microcredit risk management and policy of promoting business microcredit through credit unions.

During the event, the five WOCCU-Colombia (ACCION Project) credit unions presented their various experiences. The current project credit unions represent different geographic areas in Colombia: Confiar from the city of Medellin, Comultrasan from Bucaramanga, Coomuldesa from San Gil, Cooptradepmeta from Villavicencio, and Coopertive from Ibague. Collectively the credit unions have a total US$140 million in assets, 280,000 members and loans of approximately US$110 million. This credit union project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

Click to read additional information on the WOCCU-Colombia project.

World Council of Credit Unions is the global trade association and development agency for credit unions. World Council promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services. World Council advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organizations and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation. Its technical assistance programs introduce new tools and technologies to strengthen credit unions' financial performance and increase their outreach.

World Council has implemented more than 290 technical assistance programs in 71 countries. Worldwide, 51,000 credit unions in 100 countries serve 196 million people. Learn more about World Council's impact around the world at www.woccu.org.