Synergy Credit Union: Delivering on Vision, Mission and Values in 2023

We delighted to share news about our positive and successful year in operations in 2023, where we continued to deliver on our vision, mission, and values.

Digital Transformation:

We made significant strides in digitalizing our services, making it easier and more convenient for our members to access our products and services.

• Launched a new lending platform that significantly reduced the time to decision loan applications.
• Introduced Open Banking, allowing members to securely share financial banking information without the need for downloading or printing bank statements and pay slips.
• Launched remote member on-boarding, allowing adult applicants to join Synergy Credit Union remotely.

Loans Products:

We expanded our loan offerings to meet the diverse needs of our members.

• Introduced Community Loans to support local community groups and voluntary organisations.
• Removed the €30,000 share limit and the €5,000 monthly lodgement limit, allowing members to hold savings to the legislative maximum of €100,000.
• Introduced the Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme in partnership with the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland  This is a low-cost finance package to fund working capital and investments for local businesses and farmers, impacted by economic challenges arising from the conflict in Ukraine

Environmental Social Governance:

We made significant strides in our commitment to sustainability and climate change.

• Implemented carbon-neutral communication to reduce our operational carbon emissions.
• Became a Sustainable Energy Community and are in the process of developing an Energy Master Plan to further help reduce carbon emissions in our local community.
• Introduced a Green loan product to support our members in becoming environmentally focused.
• Partnered with Serve to develop a Climate Change schools programme aimed at primary and post primary students.

Key Membership Stats:

• Welcomed 770 new member accounts, bringing our total membership to over 20,000.
• Loaned out €16.2 million, including 48 business loans to a value of almost €2 million.
• Our Current Account, which is now used by over 1,200 members.

Looking Forward:

We're excited to continue enhancing our products and services in 2024.

• Launching General Insurance, personal car, home and pet insurances, on a referral basis through Allianz In December 2023.
• Working on further development of business and community lending and the possible introduction of mortgages in 2025.