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Assiniboine Credit Union does things differently
W
hen Assiniboine
Credit Union
(ACU) opened
its McGregor
branch in
Winnipeg’s North End in 2012,
it was after other mainstream
financial institutions had largely
abandoned the neighbourhood,
leaving cheque-cashing and
payday loan businesses as the only
options for many.
That was a few years before
Tamir Bourlas joined the
credit union. But Bourlas, now the
McGregor branch manager, says
he’s proud of the branch’s role in
the community and feels grateful
for the opportunity to “steward
its legacy.”
“Our community here in the
North End of Winnipeg faces
lots of barriers, including bruised
credit and the like, and so we
work pretty hard to provide that
education to make sure members
don’t slip further and support
them where others won’t,”
he says.
ACU’s commitment to the
North End community exemplifies why Bourlas first joined the
organization. After graduating
with a degree in economics, he
applied for several jobs, but the
credit union was his first choice
because of its three core values of
supporting people, the planet and
prosperity.
“I felt ACU’s values aligned
closely with my own, and I
appreciate being able to collect a
paycheque knowing that the work
I am putting in is doing good in
the community," he says.
Those values were also the biggest draw for Nigel Mohammed,
vice-president of the credit
union’s Community Financial
Centre (CFC) and small business
distribution. Mohammed began
his career at a major bank in the
mid-1980s but left six years later to
pursue community development
work in the eastern Caribbean and
later discovered the impact credit
unions have on local communities
and economies. After several years
in the Caribbean non-profit and
credit union sectors, Mohammed
and his wife returned to
Winnipeg, where he set his sights
on a job at ACU.
Nigel Mohammed, vice-president, Community Financial Centre and small business distribution, at Assiniboine
Credit Union.
“I didn’t want to work for
another credit union — this was
the one,” he says. “I was looking
at the initiatives ACU was putting
out, the way they were thinking
about doing banking differently,
assessing how and who they gave
loans to, and how they reported
out their measures. They had
evidence of doing what they said
and making a difference in the
community.”
I think there’s a
real commitment to
demonstrate our values
in action.
— Nigel Mohammed
Vice-President, Community
Financial Centre and Small
Business Distribution
Mohammed, who’s been with
ACU for 23 years, now heads up a
unique division. The Community
Financial Centre provides
specialized support to small
businesses, start-ups, non-profits,
co-ops and social enterprises, and
is the only one of its kind in the
province. In addition to applying
different metrics for assessing the
strength and risk level of these
types of organizations, the CFC
considers the social impact in loan
decisions — such as whether a
local business plans to hire from
a low-income neighbourhood,
or a co-op is planning to build
affordable housing units.
“I think there’s a real commitment to demonstrate our values in
action,” he says. “There’s an intention and investment required to
maintain a centre like this. But it
