Credit union industry dedication honoured at national awards

A number of dedicated New Zealand credit union staff and directors were honoured recently with an Individual Recognition Award at the credit union industry awards dinner held at MovieWorld on the Gold Coast on Tuesday 29 July 2014.

Paul Eves, Chair of NZCU Steelsands; Slavica Marsic, Director of NZCU Steelsands; Colin Turnbull, Chair of Credit Union Central; Eddie Masters, Director of Credit Union Central; Jacqui MacPherson, Manager of Caxton Employees Credit Union and Phil Todd, Chief Executive of United Credit Union all received the ‘Individual Recognition Award’ at the New Zealand Association of Credit Unions’ (NZACU) Annual Gala Awards event. The dinner was attended by over 100 credit union board members and managers from all over New Zealand, and was held in conjunction with the World Council of Credit Unions’ Conference, which hosted more than 1,800 international delegates.

Recipients of the awards were nominated by fellow credit union representatives, and were awarded based on their valuable contribution to their credit union and local community by the Board of NZACU, the cooperatively owned industry body that represents its 22 cooperatively owned Member credit unions and building societies throughout the country.

An additional award, the ‘People Helping People Award’ was presented to the credit union that, in the opinion of the judges, has made a significant and positive impact in their community. This year’s recipient was Credit Union Central, based in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, who were recognised for their dedication in serving their members’ and community’s best interests.

Two NZACU Board Special Recognition Awards were also presented to long serving industry staff:

Peter Iles, General Manager of large Waikato based credit union First Credit Union, who has been involved in the credit union industry for over 36 years; and David Smart, Chief Financial Officer for the New Zealand Association of Credit Unions, for his more than 15 years’ service to the Association.

Guests at the event included Brian Branch, President and Chief Executive Officer of the World Council of Credit Unions as well as other senior members of the World Council. The annual World Council conference is a chance for leaders from cooperatively owned financial institutions throughout the world to come together to share knowledge and network with their peers. This year’s event on the Gold Coast was attended by over 1,800 delegates from around the globe.

Independently owned and operated by their members for their members, credit unions and building societies provide a wide range of financial services, like savings accounts, loans and insurance, and any profits are returned to the members in a combination of ways, such as fairer fees and interest rates with community involvement.