Traditional Credit Union wins governance award
29 August 2008
Australian’s only Aboriginal-owned banking institution, Traditional Credit Union (TCU), has won the 2008 Reconciliation Australia Indigenous Governance Award for an organisation established for more than 10 years.
TCU Chairman Micky Wunungmurra and TCU General Manager Cathy Hunt attended the Indigenous Governance Awards today in Melbourne. The Award was presented to TCU by the Federal Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin.
TCU is an Aboriginal enterprise success story that has been in business since December 1994 and provides face-to-face and electronic banking services by Aboriginal people to Aboriginal people across the Top End of the NT.
TCU has approximately 14,000 members and 12 branches in remote communities and a head office in Darwin. TCU’s mission is ‘to provide personalised, quality financial services to the Indigenous community and organisations in remote Australia.’
More than 80 percent of TCU’s 68 staff are Indigenous. In remote locations, all TCU staff are Indigenous. TCU’s board is made up of five indigenous members and four non-indigenous members.
TCU successfully negotiates two very different worlds: complying with the strictest regulatory framework in the highly regulated financial sector; and, meeting the needs of a disadvantaged customer base where English is the second or even third
language.
TCU holds a banking licence under the Commonwealth Banking Act 1959 and an Australian Financial Services Licence under the Corporations Act 2001.
“We are absolutely thrilled to win this award,” Mrs Hunt said. “This is very welcome recognition of the challenging and sometimes difficult job we do.”
“We will use the $10,000 prize to continue to improve TCU’s governance standards,” Mrs Hunt said.
Further information:
Cathy Hunt (08) 8999 0701 or 0429 095 966
