Hexham MP, Guy Opperman, met with the team of the Northumberland Community Bank to celebrate another year of growth and success for this ground breaking ‘not-for-profit’ enterprise.
He, said: ‘It has been an amazing year for the Northumberland Community Bank and I wanted to offer my congratulations to Lauren, Mark and the team who do such a fantastic job. The Community Bank is a beefed up Credit Union, and it offers a vital service: they help people build their financial resilience by both encouraging saving and also supplying them with access to responsible, affordable lending when they need it.’
From small beginning as Tynedale Community Bank, through the subsequent merger with the Credit Union for South East Northumberland in 2017, Northumberland Community Bank now covers the whole county and has over 2,250 active members.
2019 was a record year for the Northumberland Community Bank. More new members than ever joined and significant employers, such as Northumberland NHS Foundation Trust, entered in to an payroll partnership, which enables staff to benefit from the services the bank offers through salary deduction. Alongside issuing over 800 loans in the past 12 months, the launch of a smartphone app and the issue of a dividend to savers, the bank has also expanded its staff team.
Our Chief Executive, Lauren Langton, said:
‘It was great to welcome Guy to our HQ and to talk with him about the progress we have made over the past year. As one of the founders of the Tynedale Community Bank, Guy has been a keen supporter of this service and a great advocate for us as we seek to grow and improve our offer. We have exciting plans for the coming year which include the roll out of a debit card and full bank accounts. If any business wants us to provide pay roll deductions to local savings accounts for their staff then we would be keen to help.
‘Our goal is to be self-sustaining, providing a service to our community into the future. This is an ambitious goal that almost no community-based credit union has achieved. Over the last 3 years we have tripled our earnedincome and more than doubled our loan book. By employing industry leading technology, we plan to keep expanding and to continue to help local people across Northumberland (here in Tynedale / Morpeth / Berwick).’