More loans, more members and over half a million pounds worth of savings in the bank were among the successes hailed by members of Stroud Valleys Credit Union on Saturday.

The credit union, a mutually-owned community bank that makes no profit, held its annual general meeting in The Shambles on February 23, where members heard about how the last year had gone.

In the most recent financial year, September 1 2017 to August 31 2018, the bank saw loans given out increased by 37%, the number of new members increase by 11% and the total amount of local people’s savings trusted to the credit union topped the half a million mark.

The year also saw the start of the credit union’s 20th birthday as it opened its door to local people in June 1998, following a public meeting organised by Stroud District Council where local people agreed that a credit union was important to help people build their financial resilience.

“We’re so heartened by this vote of confidence shown by local people," said Graeme Watt, chair of directors at Stroud Valleys Credit Union.

"We’re continually reviewing our service to reflect the way society is changing so we can support them by providing the service they need."

He continued “We’ve been upgrading our IT, administrative and publicity systems and our new three-year business plan contains ambitious targets for growth to enable us to help significantly more local people build financial resilience and avoid getting into vicious cycles of debt that that can be caused by some lenders.”

At the credit union’s 20th birthday party, Stroud MP David Drew, who was the first person to join Stroud Valleys Credit Union, officially welcomed to the organisation Marie Baker from Stroud who was the latest member at that time.

Marie thinks that joining was a great move: “The credit union’s helped me to build a firmer financial footing for my family, and make my money go further. I’ve saved regularly and now have a good nest egg to fall back onto if I need it. I’ve also had a couple of loans from them to buy a car and some other necessities. But their approach means I’ve carried on saving so I’m very happy.”