By Kenzie Love
Community Savings Credit Union was founded in 1944 by members of the International Woodworkers Association union. These workers were denied fair access to financing by traditional banks, so they built their own cooperative financial institution. Community Savings has a social purpose, “to unite working people to build a just world”, meaning every decision is grounded in its commitment to economic justice.
Community Savings has a long history of supporting workers, activists, cooperatives and not-for-profits, guided by values of community, social justice, and serving people underserved by mainstream banks.
The commitment to these values is reflected in a variety of ways. Since its merger with CCEC Credit Union in 2022, Community Savings has become BC’s largest fully unionized credit union, with seven branches across the Lower Mainland and Victoria. The credit union works closely with partners that help drive its social purpose forward, from Solid State to Heads Up Guys mental health research at UBC.
Community Savings takes pride in innovating to fill the gaps left by mainstream banks. Because it’s driven by purpose over profit, it offers products that aim to help its membership, such as an Express Loans payday loan alternative product, with the lowest interest rate for express loans in BC.
Other innovations include launching AnXin Community Savings (for Chinese Canadians), Aria (for Persian Canadians), and sector-specific services for cannabis businesses – such as being the first credit union to guarantee cannabis credit cards.
Community Savings lives by cooperative principles, with a strong recognition that it is a financial co-operative. It supports co-operatives across industries and sectors, including housing, farming and agriculture, cannabis, worker-owned, food, and consumer. It also offers a wide library of different subject matter presentations that it can share with co-operatives and union members, allowing them to understand banking services at a granular level and creating a safe environment in which to ask questions.
By serving underserved communities, placing purpose over profit, and working to build a just world, Community Savings demonstrates, as its name would suggest, that a credit union can be an enterprise that grows both community and savings.