Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU), featuring with the Shinkumi Federation Bank (SFB) and the National Central Society of Credit Cooperatives (NCSCC), hosted 2021 Virtual Credit Union Study Visit Program in Japan on August 5, 2021 in order to exchange and learn best practices. The program was attended by 300 participants from 9 countries including Australia, India, Nepal, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Mongolia.
SFB was founded in 1954 as the central financial institution of Shinkumi Banks. “Coexistence and Co-prosperity” are SFB’s philosophy.
SFB started with 400 million yen of deposits from Shinkumi Banks that have grown up and reached 7 trillion yen now. SFB has provided deposits and lending services to members and non-members. While the population has declined and economic activities have slowed down in local area. SFB will use Shinkumi Banks’ network of people, information, funds and other resources to meet this challenge. SFB invests to regional funds to support Shinkumi Banks’ clients. Shinkumi Banks also use funds to support clients for regional revitalization. Besides, SFB has launched MOTTAINAI MOTTO which is a crowdfunding website for Shinkumi Banks’ clients and SMEs collaborate with three companies as a door for new mutual assistance to regional communities. SFB also provides debit/credit card, mobile banking, cashless payment (E-money) and QR code. The Shinkumi Peter Pan card supports the sound growth of children. The 330,000 cards were issued and the donation raised more than 560 million yen. To compare with 2018 and 2019, over 15 years old people have used debit/credit cards and mobile payment much more than before in order to avoid using cash because of pandemic outbreak.
The Shinkumi Banks Association of Japan (SBAJ) was founded in 1959 as an Association of the Shinkumi Banks. SBAJ provides business development support. It is not just only subsidization but also advice and training to clients. It also provides notification and advice regarding relevant laws and ordinances and institutional revisions. Besides, SBAJ holds a business matching event in Tokyo every year which gathers around 50,000 visitors in order to connect Shinkumi Banks’ clients all over country and with buyers in Tokyo area. In 2018, SBAJ won the Philanthropy Award of Regional Future Creation Prize. SBAJ joined ACCU in 2019. SFB and SBAJ, as an integrated organization, are going to contribute to ACCU.
SFB and SBAJ take this opportunity to introduce their members such as Dai-Tokyo Shinkumi Bank, Shiozawa Shinkumi Bank and Fukushimaken Shoko Shinkumi Bank for us to learn more about their business and credit union movement in Japan. That was such a fruitful program.
