We are a community credit union (a community bank) authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority FRN number 213628 and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Members' deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Membership is open to anyone who lives or works in the counties of Dorset and Somerset, plus a small number of named organisations who also operate beyond these counties.
Beneficiaries - we are committed to improving the economic and social well-being of members and have a number of clear objectives enshrined in their constitution. These include:
We also promote responsible lending.
Services - we take deposits from members and offer members access to affordable loans – taking into account their personal circumstances, payment history and ability to repay the loan.
We distribute any year end surplus (profit) to members as a dividend; some also pay interest on specific savings accounts. Whether paid as a dividend or interest, the money stays within that credit union’s community (i.e. with the members) as against payments made to shareholders as in private or public companies.
Impact - provision of access to financial services for people who are otherwise financially excluded. Access to funds (loans) enabling individuals to gain additional education, acquire essentials to enable start up of small business, acquire basic transport to get to work in rural areas, to fund holidays that would otherwise be unattainable, and to support essential day to day living. By enabling and encouraging saving in parallel to borrowing, borrowers often complete loans with savings that would otherwise not be achieved.
We are accessible via the internet, telephone, and the Dorchester office during normal office hours, we also open on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings to provide access to weekday workers. We also operate weekly and some twice weekly, pop-up branches in over 15 towns across rural Dorset and South Somerset and are beginning to extend our operation into Poole, followed by Bournemouth. These branches are all staffed by volunteers. Thus, despite being a small and predominantly volunteer operated organisation, we are easily accessible to the majority of our community population.
Savings and loan repayments are predominantly made electronically but the pop-up branches provide a cash facility branches to those who still prefer it.
A significant proportion of our deposits are made by members who wish to provide the funds to be lent to those who need them - the community bank. As stated above, loans are made based on an assessment of an individual’s circumstances and greater flexibility is applied to many requests that might normally be rejected by a high street bank.
Our loan interest rate is regulated and whilst higher than a high street bank, it is significantly lower than 'PayDay' lenders and other loan companies generally not also deposit takers. In addition, we may not charge any fees other than the loan interest. This reflects the ethical intent of credit unions.
