HISTORY
The Commsave Credit Union is a non-profit organisation which was formed in 1991. Initially formed on 7th August 1991 as the Northamptonshire Postal Workers Credit Union to meet demand for such a service. The area of coverage was then extended to neighbouring counties, and on 22 November 1996 a change of name was necessary and so East Midlands postal Workers Credit Union was formed. To facilitate our future expansion into other areas we rebranded ourselves as Commsave Credit Union on 29 July 2002. More recently to meet the demand of our members we have expanded the common bond to cover the whole of England to ensure that all Royal Mail Employees have access to the same great benefits we have to offer. |
The credit union was formed on 7 August 1991 as Northamptonshire Postal Workers Credit Union and was open to any employee of Royal Mail working in the NN postcode area. Its original office was based in Northampton Mail Centre 55, Barrack Road.
At the end of August 1995 membership stood at 583 with savings of £354k and loans of £283k.
Due to interest from work colleagues in neighbouring counties on 22 November 1996 the ‘common bond’ was extended to cover Royal Mail employees in CV, DE, LE and NG postcode areas.
At the annual general meeting on 14 April 2002 it was agreed that an application should be made to change its name to Commsave Credit Union. This change was made in order to prepare the way to expand in to other geographic areas.
In July 2002 the authorisation and regulation of Credit Unions moved from The Registrar of Friendly Societies to the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Along with this change came protection of members’ savings through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
In September 2002 membership stood at 1,762 with savings of £1.4m and loans of £1.4m.
Following a disastrous fire on 7 September 2003 which destroyed Northampton Mail Centre and a period in rented accommodation Commsave purchased its own offices at 6 Duncan Close, Moulton Park, Northampton, in June 2004.
In 2005 following an application to the FSA Commsave’s ‘common bond’ was extended to cover Royal Mail Group employees in the East of England, and the ‘common bond’ was further extended in January 2008 to cover all Royal Mail Group employees who work in England.
In June 2006, Friends of Commsave Credit Union (FOCCU) was set up to take over the running of the monthly members’ lottery. The aims of FOCCU are to ‘Further the development of Commsave Credit Union through education, training and promoting awareness’
In September 2006 membership stood at 2,250 with savings of £1.9m and loans of £1.9m.
To encourage members to save a range of specific accounts were introduced e.g. Christmas Savings and Last Day retirement day account.
In order to help members families save the Stamper Account for under 16’s was introduced in March 2007
In September 2009 membership stood at 3,962 with savings of £3.2m and loans of £3.1m.
To be continued …………………
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