By Lim Xin Hui, Edited by Sng Ler Jun

Between 14 and 16 March, the Singapore National Co-operative Federation (SNCF) attended a study visit to some co-operative offices in South Korea. Organised by the Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU) and hosted by the National Credit Union Federation of Korea (NACUFOK), the visit also saw delegates and chief executives from co-operatives within the Asia-Pacific region, such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines.

One of the programmes saw NACUFOK giving delegates a tour of their newly built state-of-the-art training institute and Korean credit unions' IT system, which in turn gave insights into how the federation provides technology services and solutions to credit unions throughout South Korea. Every week, NACUFOK training facility is capable of training 300 credit union employees to enhance their capabilities and improve the quality of services rendered.

“NACUFOK is our role model in Asia as we get inspired from (fellow co-operatives) on how they developed credit unions,” says ACCU’s CEO Elenita V. San Roque on how the credit union movement in South Korea has grown great strides, from rudimentary providers to being the fourth largest credit union movement in the world. She also shared her appreciation to NACUFOK for constantly offering opportunities for the Asian credit union movement to learn from one another.

One other key highlight of the programme entailed the visiting of Sinmok Credit Union in Daejeon city. There, delegates learnt how the credit union goes beyond providing just financial services to members. Today, Sinmok Credit Union has 200 welfare services that members can leverage, depending on their needs and lifestyles.

On the last day of the conference, the discussions focused on supervision systems, and communication and marketing strategies. One of the goals of credit union marketing is to attract the next generation of members. Credit unions need to focus on understanding the needs and preferences of the younger generation in order to develop marketing strategies that resonate with them. For instance, credit unions can invest in social media advertising, search engine optimization, and content marketing to reach younger demographics.

Delegates also learned that NACUFOK offers a variety of commercial services, which run the gamut from training, marketing and public relations, mutual insurance, advocacy to liquidity management. This is in addition to its significant regulatory function in preserving the public's confidence in credit unions. By investing in education and human resource development, NACUFOK is making a significant impact on the lives of its members, providing them with the tools they need to thrive and succeed. 

The programme concluded with a group discussion for participating CEOs and delegates to summarise the important keynotes they have learnt during the three-day workshop and how they can implement these to their credit unions.