NC Credit Union League Celebrates International Credit Union Month.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- During the month of October, which is International Credit Union Month, credit unions take time to honor their heritage. The credit union movement, which started in Germany in the 1840's, has grown to be worldwide in scope. Today, 157 million people across the globe are members of a credit union.

Nearly three million of those credit union members call North Carolina home. Here in the Tar Heel state, credit unions have a long, proud and continuing tradition of providing affordable, quality financial services.

Like most cooperatively-structured businesses, North Carolina credit unions sprang up from very humble roots. In 1913, Banker John Sprunt Hill was looking for a way to help his fellow Tar Heels help themselves. The North Carolina of that time was more than 80% rural, and the economy farm-based. Many, if not most, lived in poverty. Quite a few, locked out of the traditional banking system, turned to loan sharks in times of need.

Hill, the wealthy son of Duplin County's largest landowner, traveled to Europe in the spring of 1913 to study the cooperatively-structured financial institutions that had sprung up there in response to widespread poverty. It was a trip that changed not only Hill's life, but also the lives of millions of Tar Heels who have been helped by a credit union.

The cooperative concept is based on the idea that members pool their capital and make loans to one another at affordable interest rates. It is a system based on trust and honor.

This cooperative concept immediately struck Hill as a way for North Carolinians to escape poverty and build up their communities. Hill remarked that, "Credit union membership is a certificate of character and a badge of honor. Let a person stay in the credit union for ten years and it changes his whole philosophy of life - it is a modern miracle."

Hill began lobbying furiously for that modern miracle with both the Legislature and the small groups of farmers he would speak to across the State. Hill's singular efforts lead to the passage of North Carolina's Credit Union Act on March 6, 1915.

The following year, Hill also helped a small group of farmers in Lowes Grove charter the state's first credit union. Twenty farmers in the Durham County community pooled $101.75, and the credit union movement was born.

In the years since, millions of Tar Heels have improved their lives through the benefits of credit union membership. This help comes in many forms, from very small loans to cover emergencies, all the way up to mortgage loans to provide homeownership opportunities. Time-and-time again, credit unions have shown themselves to be key for working men and women who seek to unlock the doors of financial success.

The mission of serving the most vulnerable among us continues today. For many years, NC credit unions voiced their opposition to the predatory lending industry. Many credit unions have backed up their talk with action - providing affordable solutions to consumers who face financial emergencies. The actions of credit unions have helped to eliminate predatory lending in NC, and provided loans to people who need them.

Credit unions have also been in the forefront of service to the Hispanic community. Our goal as institutions is to help new Americans fully participate in the North Carolina economy. Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU), which was chartered in Durham six years ago, is acknowledged as a US model of Hispanic service.

John Herrera, the chairman of LCCU, emigrated from Costa Rica. "Back home we called them the cooperativa - the co-op," he recalls. He remembers the credit union as a backbone of support in the rural community of his childhood. "The credit union was a way that struggling families could share money, investing in each other's futures. It was a moral obligation to use the credit union to help your family, and to pay back what you borrowed as part of the community."

Herrera's thoughtful reflection reminds us that even though credit unions have evolved into modern institutions, the spirit of John Sprunt Hill remains alive and well in this International Credit Union Month.

John Radebaugh is the president of the NC Credit Union League, a trade association dedicated to serving credit unions. Radebaugh may be contacted at 336 299-6286.