Management Report...3 Management Report March 2016 4 ACCU was privileged to be part of the first ever CEOs educational conference attended by 400 CEOs/Managers of SACCOS across Nepal

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Highlights of the monthly activities of the ASSOCIATION OF ASIAN CONFEDERATION OF CREDIT UNIONS

Management Report

From March 13 – 17, 2016, 17 CEOs from 9 countries met in Yangon, Myanmar during the CEO

Workshop organized by ACCU in collaboration with the Central Cooperative Society (CCS) – an

affiliate member of ACCU.

Mr. U Kyaw Thein, the CEO of CCS, gave brief opening remarks during the official commencement

ceremony on the morning of March 14, 2016. As one of our respected partners in development,

mainly speaking the MicroLead Project, ACCU felt honored to have an opportunity to hold this

special event in Yangon and joined hand-in-hand with the CCS to make it a successful one.

This year, the discussion focused largely on 4 main topics including financial inclusion, digital

financial service, governance, and safety and soundness. CEOs utilized the moment during the

workshop to present and share their contemplative experiences and knowledge regarding the

challenges and advantages of their cooperatives within the aforementioned areas.

Moreover, ACCU invited distinguished resource persons such as Mr. Paul Luchtenburg,

Programme Specialist Inclusive Finance Myanmar from the United Nations Capital Development

Fund (UNCDF) to speak about Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and how credit union

movement can contribute to the achievement of the goals by 2030. In addition, Mr. William

Hackett, Business Development Manager – Cloud Solutions from the TEMENOS presented

the benefits of the ACCU Payment Platform (APP) and technological solutions that financial

cooperatives can utilize to advance their capabilities.

On March 16, the participants visited the Oak Pho Shwe Gone Myay SCC and Sccin SCC in Bago,

District – two of the 25 credit unions organized under the MicroLead Project funded by UNCDF.

Seeing how the project has helped people in the local community build their base for financial

independence, many CEOs in the field commented that the project has been one of the most

inspiring experiences in their life and truly appreciated the opportunity given by ACCU.

The workshop concluded on the action steps aimed at achieving higher integration of the

credit union network, with priorities set around digital finance and financial inclusion.

CEOs: Digital Financial Services & Financial Inclusion Seen to Shape up the CU Future

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March 15, 2016 marked an important day as the Philippine Federation of Credit Cooperatives

(PFCCO) and the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) hold the ceremonial

signing of the service agreement with the TEMENOS and the Software Group witnessed by the

CEOs of member organizations attending the workshop in Myanmar. “The signing was indeed

one of the most important event in the history of ACCU as our members made a giant-leap

decision toward revolutionizing credit union services through technology,” according to CEO

Leni San Roque.

As stated by APP stakeholders, individual credit union networks would benefit from a cloud

hosted subscription based service jointly provided and managed by TEMENOS and the

Software Group, TEMENOS business partner. TEMENOS, IT business partner of ACCU, will

provide a cloud based hosted service, which provides the ability for credit unions to connect

to an online payment networks.

Primary societies and tertiary level cooperatives will be able to facilitate member payments for

such services as: electronic payments between members, electronic payments form members

to non-members o cards based payments (EFTPOS), ATMs proprietary and 3rd party o Mobile

phone top-up payments, bill payments with direct settlement with payees or through payment

aggregator services, and domestic and international remittances.

The service will be based on an e-wallet that a member can load value into either in-branch

using a web based instruction whereby a member can pay in money to the credit union from

his/her account or in cash, or through a mobile phone or some other mobile device or PC.

The signing marked the kickoff of the design and configuration of the platform and aggressive

marketing of the platform.

NATCCO & PFCCO made a Brave Stance to Revolutionize Digital Finance in Coops

During the CEO Workshop on March 16, 2016, ACCU signed a memorandum of understanding

(MOU) with two federations in Nepal including the Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit

Co-operative Unions Ltd. (NEFSCUN) and the National Cooperative Bank Ltd. (NCBL)

agreeing to the annual hosting of the exposure program in Nepal.

As stated on the MOU itself, the objectives of the offering are to exchange cooperative

experiences with ACCU members, provide opportunity for Nepalese government to share

its development story, disseminate the message of ACCESS Branding contribution to the

safety and soundness of SACCOS in Nepal, prepare as well as suggest a roadmap for the

development of cooperative sectors with practitioners, and create common understanding

between cooperative body and government regulators.

ACCU will announce the invitation to all the regular members and coordinate the program

directly with NEFSCUN and NCBL.

NEFSCUN & NCBL Opens a Learning Opportunity for ACCU Members

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The Account Supervisory Committee (ASC) meeting was held on March 17 at Taw

Win Garden Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar. Attended by Dr. Chalermpol Dulsamphant

(ACCU President), Mr. Rishi Raj Ghimire (ACCU Treasurer), Ms. Elenita V. San Roque

(CEO), Ms. Nutchakarn Toscha (Administrative Officer), and Ms. May Srithanes,

Member Services Officer (MSO) the financial activities throughout the fiscal year

were successfully reviewed.

Following the adjournment of the Account Supervisory Committee meeting,

the 84th Board of Directors meeting was held. Attended by all Board Members

and ACCU management team including the CEO and MSO, the meeting of two

approved the Affiliate membership of the Australian Mutual Foundation (AMF)

and the Department of Cooperative, Bangladesh (DoC).

The Board also approved the Recognition Award recipients for 2016. With the

selection process being highly competitive this year, the Board Members have

decided to select Mr. Oh Man Kwon from Korea as the recipient of the Recognition

Award – individual category and the United Nations Capital Development Fund

(UNCDF) as the winner of the Recognition Award – institutional category.

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Board of Directors and ASC Meetings held in Yangon, Myanmar

Congratulations Ladies for taking a step toward a world where feminism means gender equality in leadership.

On April 1, the Sister Society (SS) Event was held at the Credit Union League of Thailand (CULT) in Bangkok prior to the 2016 Annual

General Meeting of Credit Union Women Chapter in Thailand to promote the SS membership. Consisted of approximately 26 SS

representatives from all parts of Thailand, the meeting ended successfully and fruitfully.

May Srithanes, Member Service Officer of ACCU was honored to be invited to deliver a short presentation about the Global Women’s

Leadership Network (GWLN) on behalf of Ms. Elenita V. San Roque, the CEO of ACCU, with a valuable support from Ms. Kruewan

Chonlanai, the Executive Director Credit Union Institute of CULT.

“The atmosphere of the event was truly vibrant and is filled with constructive discussion while at the same time treated with

tenderness by the well-connected women in the room,” said May.

Always referring themselves as sisters, aunties, and mothers, the meeting did not just feel like a meeting, but instead a gathering of

CU Women Chapter in Thailand Organized its 2016 Annual General Meeting

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ACCU was privileged to be part of the first ever CEOs educational conference

attended by 400 CEOs/Managers of SACCOS across Nepal on March 31 to April

1, 2016 held at Soaltee Crowne Plaza in Kathmandu, Nepal. The Right Honorable

KP Oli, Prime Minister of Nepal was the Chief Guest of the opening program. He

was accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Chitra Bahadur, Hon. Keshav

Badal, Member of the Parliament and other high ranking government officials.

ACCU CEO Leni San Roque and CTO Ranjith Hettiarchchi presented the global

trends that affect credit unions’ future – United Nation’s Sustainable Development

Goals and ICA’s Blueprint for a Cooperative Decade. Both of them underscored

that CEOs of SACCOS need to keep themselves abreast of their environment to be

able to set the direction of their organization.

The conference culminated with a Declaration mainly to reinforce the CEOs

commitment and action to a unified savings and credit cooperative system in

Nepal.

NEFSCUN Held the First SACCOS CEOs Conference

From March 15 – 17, 2016, SACUDIL project staff in Oudomxay organized a

meeting to discuss the merging of 3 Village Development Funds (VDF): Nalai,

Bengluang and Naborn VDFs. While waiting for the government approval on the

amalgamation, the SACUDIL team is continuing to educate the leaders on the

values, benefits and membership promotion of saving and credit unions in the

nearby villages.

The Team Engaged in Membership Promotion of Sibounhueng VDF

Myanmar SCC News

A S S O C I A T I O N O F A S I A N C O N F E D E R A T I O N O F C R E D I T U N I O N S

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Myanmar SCC Managers Learn

Professional Cooperative

Management

Eighteen (18) SCC Managers and Assistant Managers representing 14 SCCs participated in a three-day intensive job training on professional cooperative management on March 21 to 23, 2016 in Pathein Project Office in Pathein, Ayeyarwaddy.

Modules of this learner-centered participatory workshop include Village-Level Marketing Management, Presentation Techniques and External Environment Scanning, SCC Prudential Standards and Account and Records-keeping, Business and Action Planning.

The SCC Managers are from the 3rd round of SCCs organized since the project commenced. They are expected to bring in 500 members to their SCCs within the next 6 months.

1st and 2nd rounds SCCs hire one Assistant Managers once they reach 300 members, two Assistant Managers when they reach 600 members.

1st and 2nd round SCCs Quarterly Review Reveals Progress and Challenges

Updated individual personal ledgers of members, prompt quarterly computation of interest on members’ savings, SCC offices transferred to a more strategic location, increasing number of members and volume of member services.

These are just a few of cited progress of 24 SCCs organized in 2014 and 2015 under ACCU-CCS-UNCDF Project, revealed during two separate Quarterly Review Meetings held in Ayeyarwadday and Bago Regions on March 24-25 and 28-29, respectively.

However, there are still so much room for improvement in a lot of areas of challenges:

> all SCCs fall short of the 1,000 membership goal

> most members do not deposit weekly or monthly in regular basis, as agreed

> it was validated that most Board of Directors are inactive

> there is no consistent, intensive and aggressive membership recruitment campaign

Both review sessions ended with the re-commitment of 2016 Business Plan per SCC adopted at the beginning of the year which provides for goals in each Key Results Area in Membership, Shares, Savings and Loans.

Total membership target of the 1st and 2nd round SCCs is set at 22,000. As of February 2016, total members is 10,779.