A credit union league or credit union central is

cooperative federation A co-operative federation or secondary co-operative is a co-operative in which all members are, in turn, co-operatives. Historically, co-operative federations have predominantly come in the form of co-operative wholesale societies and co-operative ...

for

credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including deposit accounts, provisi ...

Canada

In Canada there is generally one credit union central per province (with exceptions). Except for the

Desjardins Group The Desjardins Group (french: Mouvement Desjardins) is a Canadian financial service cooperative and the largest federation of credit unions (french: caisses populaires) in North America. It was founded in 1900 in Lévis, Quebec by Alphonse Des ...

(primarily operating in Quebec, but also French-speaking areas of New Brunswick and Ontario) which is separate, they are all members the

Canadian Credit Union Association The Canadian Credit Union Association (CCUA; french: Association canadienne des coopératives financières) is the national trade association for credit unions in Canada (outside the province of Quebec). Founded in 1953, it rebranded to its curre ...

, the national

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partic ...

for credit unions. The Canadian Central is itself a member of the Canadian Co-operative Association, while Desjardins is a member of the '' Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité''.

United States

In the United States a credit union league is a state-level

for

s, which are not-for-profit financial

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

s. Credit union leagues hold a primary interest in the

Credit Union National Association The Credit Union National Association, commonly known as CUNA (pronounced "Cue-Nuh"), is a national trade association for both state- and federally chartered credit unions located in the United States. CUNA provides member credit unions with tr ...

(CUNA). Many credit union leagues were formed through the efforts of the

Credit Union National Extension Bureau The Credit Union National Extension Bureau (CUNEB) was the organization that advocated for and fostered credit unions in the United States from 1921 until 1934. CUNEB laid the foundation for the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) and the Fede ...

in the 1920s. In 1934, Congress enacted the

Federal Credit Union Act The Federal Credit Union Act is an Act of Congress enacted in 1934. The purpose of the law was to make credit available and promote thrift through a national system of nonprofit, cooperative credit unions. This Act established the federal credit ...

and the CUNA was formed.See , also available at http://www.ncua.gov/Resources/RegulationsOpinionsLaws/fcu_act/fcu_act.pdf The term "league" was employed to denote a mutually supportive organization for the promotion and success of credit unions. Each state in the United States, as well as

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

and

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

, had its own League. State leagues also designed the

corporate credit union A corporate credit union, also known as a central credit union, provides services to natural person (consumer) credit unions. In the credit union industry, they are sometimes referred to as "the credit union’s credit union". In the United States ...

model, to serve as the "credit union's credit union" by providing financial services independent of the commercial banking industry. From the 1930s until the 1970s, one of the chief duties of the League system was to promote and help facilitate the chartering of new credit unions. However, increased regulation and higher capitalization requirements, combined with the decline in American manufacturing job creation, virtually ended the formation of new credit unions except in special circumstances. Leagues also operate for profit "services corporations" which provide services (credit card processing, commercial printing, ATM networks, shared service centers, etc.) to credit unions and to other state leagues. Consolidation of statewide Leagues began in the late 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s. Also in the 1990s, a move to modernize the names of Leagues also began to happen. In

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, for example, the organization became known as the Ohio Credit Union System, with the Ohio Credit Union League becoming just one of four components of the system umbrella. Leagues also perform the function of lobbying state legislatures for laws that are beneficial to credit unions through the registered

lobbyists In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, whi ...

Canada

United States

References

See also