Business View Caribbean | November 2019

44 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN NOVEMBER 2019 T he General Employees Co-Operative Credit Union Limited (GECCU) is the largest credit union in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with six branches throughout the country: Kingstown, Bequia, Georgetown, Canouan, South Rivers, and Union Island. Originally registered in 1964, GECCU was formed by a few government employees and, today, serves over 44,500 members. “At that time, there weren’t many financial institutions available – there were only one or two banks, here. And these banks did not cater to the ‘small people,’” says General Manager, Lennox Bowman. “So, they had to find ways to provide financial services for themselves. Again, at that time, credit unions were fairly new in the Caribbean. But since then, they have become well-known and seen as a good development instrument to alleviate poverty and support economic development.” “Over the years, we have seen the foreign banks contract here in St. Vincent,” Bowman continues. “They had branches throughout the country, but now, there is no foreign bank in St. Vincent that has more than one branch. So, there is not a network of branches that would allow access to financial services in the banking sector, except for the National Bank of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. So, when the banks started to contract it meant that we, as a credit union, had to go and try to fill that void. We have six branches in our multi-island nation; we have three branches in the largest Grenadine Islands AT A GLANCE GENERAL EMPLOYEES CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT UNION LIMITED WHAT: A membership credit union WHERE: St. Vincent and the Grenadines WEBSITE: www.geccu.com yees Limited 55 YEARS OF SERVICE, STRENGTH, AND STABILITY