The loss of banking services is a longstanding issue for Australians in regional areas. The Commonwealth Government in 1995 faced problems in the delivery of social security entitlements following the closure of hundreds of bank branches and agencies in rural and remote communities.
From June 1993 to June 1999 approximately 1,760 bank branches closed with over 600 branches in rural areas. The Commonwealth Government approached the credit union movement, recognizing the movement’s commitment to regional Australia and extensive branch network, to develop a joint venture to return basic financial services to such communities known as CreditCare.
The credit union movement appointed Mark Genovese, currently the CEO of regional mutual health insurer Westfund, as CreditCare operations manager, with an annual $1,000,000 budget for two years with 80 per cent of the funding coming from Commonwealth Government Department agencies. CreditCare commenced in July 1995 and the federal funding for CreditCare was extended for three years in 1997.
CreditCare field officers collaborated with local communities to assess their financial viability by organizing community meetings, conducting surveys and developing business plans. CreditCare actively engaged local government in its activities. CreditCare assisted 58 “no bank” towns regain access to financial and other services, helping 40,000 people by October 1999.
An early example of success was in March 1996 in the remote community of Georgetown in far North Queensland, with a population of 500. The Cairns-based Electricity Credit Union opened a branch in the offices of the Etheridge Shire Council in Georgetown to service the town and the surrounding regions. Other examples included Werris Creek in NSW and Magnetic Island in Queensland.
The Commonwealth Government saw CreditCare program as a short-term program and it continued until June 2000 when the federal government replaced it with the Rural Transaction Centre (RTC) Program by that it introduced in 1999. The RTC program was broader than CreditCare offering a range of services to rural communities including personal banking, postal services, fax facilities and internet access.
For more information see Gary Lewis, “Laughing All the Way to the Credit Union”.