Credit unions in the UK now offer a wide range of services to their members; including current accounts, payroll deductions, standing orders and insurance.
Co-operative or mutual organisations engaging in cooperative banking, such as building societies, have existed in the UK since the 18th century.
Formalised under the Friendly Societies Act 1819, mutual institutions predated the welfare state and were formed to meet the needs of a growing urban working class.
This communitarian self-help movement allowed small regular individual contributions to be pooled for mutual collective benefit, obtaining the same economies of scope and scale necessary for providing insurance and financial products.
[8] The Act required that all credit unions in Scotland, Wales and England register with the Registrar of Friendly Societies, who was responsible for ensuring that credit unions had a "satisfactory" common bond and adhered to common set of rules.
The St Therese's Credit Union served the Catholic community living on a housing estate in Port Talbot.
[11] According to Bank of England figures, the number of credit union members in Britain nearly doubled from 562,000 in 2004 to almost 1.04 million in 2012, while total assets increased from £432m to £956m.
[vague] From November 2006, many type 2 credit unions began offering their members debit card accounts so that they could withdraw cash from any Link ATM.
[citation needed] In June 2008, the Treasury announced plans to encourage the growth of credit unions by broadening the common bond and removing outdated restrictions, with the intention of significantly reducing the influence of door step lenders and loan sharks.
[20] In 2013 the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby launched a Church of England plan to support credit unions, to combat the rise of UK payday lenders charging extremely high interest rates, which gave rise to much publicity.