Leith community sponsorship in action
A few pictures from a recent Leith Hawks session with children playing rugby while wearing Castle Community Bank sponsored shirts.
‘Circle of good’ making a difference for Leith-based community bank
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.
Fintech fuelled social impact for credit union sector
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.
Scottish Financial Enterprise
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.
Community sponsorship
One of the advantages of being a community bank is being able to give back through community sponsorship support.
Leith Rugby Youth Development players in Castle Community Bank sponsored shirts
We’re pleased to be supporting Leith Rugby Youth Development this season with shirt sponsorship. Leith Rugby develops youth rugby in Leith and encourages local children to take up sport and embrace the associated health and wellbeing benefits.
Syngenta FC team in Castle Community Bank sponsored kit
We’re also supporting Grangemouth football team Syngenta FC with kit sponsorship this season, and helping with travel expenses for a tournament trip to Barcelona.
Castle Community Bank is committed to improving the local and wider environment for all, and community sponsorship support is just one way we are able to do this.
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Community bank supporting Edinburgh citizens
Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in Edinburgh is the latest local organisation to be supported by Leith-based credit union Castle Community Bank.
The community bank is passionate about making a difference and already supports a number of foodbanks and community organisations, with plans to support more as the company grows.
Chief Executive for Castle Community Bank, Adrian Sargent, said: “Community wealth building works and we are committed to supporting our neighbours. Citizens Advice Bureau is a crucial service for people in financial difficulty, and I’m delighted we are able to commit to supporting them with essential funding when times are extremely hard for families and individuals in Scotland and across the UK. CAB are also able to support our members wherever they are based, not only those in Edinburgh.”
CAB Edinburgh Chief Executive Benjamin Napier said: “The support from Castle Community Bank is gratefully welcomed at a time of year when finances can cause a lot of strain on households. It’s never been more important for Citizens Advice Bureau to exist. We’ll use this support to help more people in Edinburgh with financial difficulties, benefit eligibility and other everyday issues.”