Small credit union amends bond, repositions for membership growth
Published:Wednesday | June 8, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Sabrina Gordon, Business Reporter
AAMM, one of the smaller players in the local credit-union sector,, amended its operational bond in May to widen criteria for membership in a search for new savers.
"It's about growth and expansion," said AAMM general manager Elvis King.
"You can't grow if you don't have the potential, and widening the bond will give us that - and serves us better," he said.
King anticipates membership will grow to 2,250 by the end of this year, as a result of the adjustment, a 50 per cent increase over initial projections of 1,500.
Over the next two to three years, King projects a growth rate of approximately 10 per cent in membership, up from seven to eight per cent expected prior to the change.
The 51-year-old credit union, created initially for teachers and their families, has a membership base of 14,500, and asset base of J$1.68 billion, of which its loan portfolio totalled $1.1 billion in 2010.
With the widening of the bond, King said membership, which was originally confined to teachers, administrative staff, student teachers and the children and spouses of members, has been extended to all persons directly employed within the Ministry of Education and its agencies or any educational institution recognised or supervised by the ministry.
"Now you don't have to prove that you are in the classroom," said King.
Trained teachers or trainee teachers are also now eligible for membership, reversing the previous stipulation that only teachers with classroom experience should be considered.
It was also agreed that membership would be extended to the brothers and sisters of AAMM's members, and not just to spouses and children as previously stipulated.
"We recognise that the business arena has changed and we have to change the way we do things. The economic realities, locally and internationally, as well as the regulatory changes we know must come, dictate that we take the initiative to attract additional members to our credit union," said King in a statement previously published in the press.