Credit unions bank new law

The Government is being urged to bring in legislation to make it easier to establish credit unions in its forthcoming shake-up of financial regulation. In a report out today the New Economics Foundation, an independent think tank, says that up to a quarter of adults in Britain do not have access to basic financial services like a bank account. This excludes people from work, as most salaries are now paid into a bank account, and exposes poor households to loan sharks because they cannot take out bank loans.

The report argues that there is a strong case for a new law encouraging the small but fast-growing credit union movement. There are now almost 600 of these local deposit-taking bodies, up from under 50 ten years ago. They serve people whom themajor banks are unwilling or unable to take on.