by admin | Jul 1, 2024 | News
Castle Community Bank has been proudly supporting Leith Rugby Youth Development since September 2023. Recently our Chief Executive Adrian Sargent went along to a practice day down at Leith Academy playing fields to see our sponsorship in action.
Leith Rugby Junior Convenor Alex Bowman and Treasurer Russell Duncan gave him a warm welcome and presented Adrian with a framed sponsored Leith Hawks shirt to say thank you for the community investment.
Adrian said:
We’re really pleased to be able to invest in our community through Leith Rugby Youth Development shirt sponsorship. This is just one of the ways we can make difference in our community. Social impact like this is important to both us and our members.
Alex said:
It’s great to have Castle Community Bank as a local supporter and sponsor. Leith Rugby develops youth rugby in Leith and encourages local boys and girls to take up sport and embrace the associated health and wellbeing benefits. We rely on community sponsorship to pay for everything from kits to pitch hire.
Leith Rugby always need new volunteers to help around the club with various on and off field pursuits. From key roles on the committee that will help to move the club forward to the jobs that may only take an hour or 2 every month or year that help to lighten the load on existing volunteers. If you would like to get involved find out more.
by admin | Apr 1, 2024 | News
A few pictures from a recent Leith Hawks session with children playing rugby while wearing Castle Community Bank sponsored shirts.
by admin | Mar 25, 2024 | News
2023 has been a year of exceptional growth for Castle Community Bank headquartered in Leith. Last Thursday (Mar 21) at the credit union’s AGM it was reported that total membership has grown to over 46,000 at September 2023.
Leadership
Castle Community Bank aims to achieve sustainability through scale and is on track to do so with total assets now equal to £283m, making them one of the largest credit unions in the UK. Deposits have grown to £247m in 2023 and the loan book has increased to £225m in 2023.
Chief Executive, Adrian Sargent, said:
I’m proud of our team, and the growth that we have achieved this year. We remain focussed on our social purpose of supporting communities, whilst helping our members to maximise their savings and manage debt as effectively as possible. At the same time, our overall current Trustpilot rating of 4.8/5 shows we are getting the day-to-day experience right for our membership.
Chair, Stephen Pearson, said:
I like to think of our operating model as a “circle of good”. Savers like our top quartile interest rates and easy online joining process. Many of them also like the fact that we make their money go further by funding our affordable loan products, enabling people who struggle to access loans from mainstream banks to borrow what they need at affordable rates. In turn, prudent, commercial success enables us to grow our community programmes in Edinburgh and beyond: including providing debt advice support, sustainable food bank funding and ethical investment for charities and churches.
Castle Community Bank is leading the way in expanding the credit union movement in the UK, delivering strong and sustainable growth, underpinned by sound risk management.
Background
The Scottish credit union was established in 2015 following the merger of two long established credit unions: Castle and North Edinburgh, along with the members of the Water of Leith Credit Union Study Group. The study group was set up with the aim of establishing a Credit Union in Leith.
The difference between credit unions or mutuals and high street banks is they are owned and run by members, instead of shareholders, creating a shared financial community across the UK, which is accessible to everyone.
by admin | Mar 18, 2024 | News
Castle Community Bank Chief Executive Adrian Sargent was a speaker at the Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL) conference on Friday (Mar 15) in Manchester to share his insight on the future of the UK credit union and mutuals sector.
Adrian said:
I’m excited to continue sharing my passion for growing the credit union and mutuals sector across the UK with ABCUL members at this year’s conference. We embraced fintech and since 2021 have seen our membership grow to over 46,000. There’s more to do and I want to help the sector get onboard with the latest technology can offer, improving products for members, and facilitating the growth of social impact through community wealth building values. With the cost of living at an all-time high in the UK, community banks and credit unions are more important than ever. This is our moment to step up and make a difference.
Annual sector conference
The conference is the largest event of the year for the UK credit union sector. Providing an opportunity for credit union board members, staff, and volunteers to hear from a wide range of speakers and discuss the issues that are important to them and their organisations.
ABCUL Chief Executive Robert Kelly said:
We’re delighted Adrian is sharing the success of Castle Community Bank with our members at this year’s ABCUL conference and AGM. We are interested to learn more about how they have utilised fintech to grow the membership and what the member benefits and social impacts have been.
There are currently around 500 credit unions in the UK with over 1.8 million members.
by admin | Jan 29, 2024 | News
We are pleased to announce we are now members of the Scottish Financial Enterprise.
This is an important association for our growing organisation and recognises the great effort by our leadership team to move forward in the mutuals sector.
