A survey of product and service innovation in credit unions: Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ghana

Historically, credit unions existed mainly to provide basic savings and loans to their members. However, in the past few decades, these organisations have developed beyond the traditional credit cooperatives of the 19th century, with some providing services similar to other financial institutions such as commercial banks. In particular, the variety of products and services currently being provided by some credit unions are sophisticated and maybe compared to existing product and services in the financial sector. However, few studies have explicitly examined innovation in credit unions, and little is understood about the types of products and services being provided to their members and potential members including communities. To address the gap, we survey innovation in credit unions across four countries, capturing the cumulative innovation in the sampled countries since the 1960s. We found that deregulation of the sector has provided stimulus for innovation across loans, savings, insurance and technology enhanced products and services. On average, 15.27 products and services are on offer in credit unions with 4.88 products and services introduced in five-year period to the date of the survey.