Cavan Credit Union to host virtual AGM

Cavan Credit Union invites all members to attend its Annual General Meeting for 2024, which will be held virtually on January 27 at 7pm, and be the last for outgoing CEO Therese Conway.

The local credit union is reporting another strong performance in 2024 with dividends and loan rebates due to members. Demand for loans remained strong with growth of 14.7% reported, bringing the total loan book to €43.2M. This marks 10 successive years of loan book growth.

The overall surplus for the year was €1.3M. Assets continued to grow to €77M, up eight per cent on the previous year.

Ms Conway remarked: “For many years now the board and management have focused on actively managing the assets of the credit union in a prudent manner and building up its capital strength. Total reserves now stand at €11.3m, 14.5% of total assets.”

Dividends

The board of directors of Cavan Credit Union are proposing a distribution at year-end 2024 at a prudent 0.1%. The total cost of this is €60,672. An interest rebate of two per cent is also being out forward, total cost €67,146.

“The board is satisfied that the proposed distribution takes account of the maintenance of an operationally resilient position, while rewarding members for their commitment to Cavan Credit Union,” said Ms Conway.

The membership of Cavan Credit Union also continues to grow and stood at 21,331 at the end of 2024. During the year the credit union’s services were further improved, with an emphasis on ease of use.

“Members can now go online and with the click of a button book an appointment with a dedicated Credit Union Officer for a loan or current account application. Alternatively, you can open a current account or apply for a loan entirely online, both applications now take less than five minutes to complete. The Credit Union also continues to offer a wide range of services in-branch, including foreign exchange, Bill-pay, electronic funds transfer (EFT) and cash facilities,” outlined Ms Conway.

Community

During the course of 2024, Cavan Credit Union donated €22,000 to deserving organisations, groups and charities around Cavan.

“The Credit Union will continue to support good causes in 2025 and if you are involved in a local group or charity, please contact the Credit Union to find out how to apply for funding,” urged Ms Conway.

Loans

The Credit Union continued to offer a wide range of loans and its lending rates remain most competitive. Loan products are available for a wide range of purposes including education, wedding, car, home improvement, Cultivate farm loans and Greenify home energy upgrade loans. The Credit Union’s hopes to launch a new mortgage product for members in summer 2025.

Ms Conway, CEO for the past 10 years, will be leaving Cavan Credit Union at the end of this month to take up a new position as CEO of Collaborative Finance CLG, which is a Credit Union services organisation with over 50 credit unions as members nationwide and currently offering the successful loan brands Cultivate and Greenify.

Speaking to The Anglo-Celt, Ms Conway said that she is sad to go but members will be left in good hands.

“There is a brilliant team, a committed and excellent board and truly wonderful members. I am, however, happy that I am handing over to Eimear Tobin, who has been the Chief Financial Officer with the credit union for the past 10 years, and who will take up the position of CEO on my departure.”

An accountant by profession, Eimear is from Ballyconnell and returned to Cavan to take up the role.

“I have worked very closely with Eimear for the past 10 years and, in that time, we have seen great changes in the credit union. The loanbook has grown from €8M to €43M, arrears have fallen from 37% to just three per cent and the membership of the credit union has grown to over 21,000,” Ms Conway outlined of their tenure over the past decade.

Ms Conway also acknowledged the role of members in that growth and development, particularly post recession.

“There was great loyalty shown by the members throughout those years and this enabled Cavan Credit Union to emerge from the recession and grow to be the strong financial institution that it is today. I was fortunate as CEO to work with successive great boards and four very committed and hard-working chairpersons - Michael Cropp, Jim Burke, Tom Gaffney and Rita McGahern.

“I know that Cavan Credit Union is in very safe hands. Eimear will be a fantastic CEO, there is wonderful management and staff in the Credit Union and the Board of Directors and Board Oversight Committee are made up of excellent and dedicated volunteers. It has been a pleasure to be the CEO of Cavan Credit Union, and I look forward to remaining a member and part of what is such an important financial institution for the local community.”

Details on how to register and log on to the AGM are contained in letters sent out to members and on the credit union’s website.