Speakers
Brian Branch
President and Chief Executive Officer
World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU)
Website: www.woccu.orgConference theme:
Simultaneous FORUMS – Doing business our way : Winning strategies for doing business differently - Financial
"I am participating in the International Summit of Cooperatives because…"
“Because that is a key opportunity for cooperatives to refresh their message.”
Biography
Brian Branch, president and CEO of World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), was appointed in 2011. Dr. Branch has worked at WOCCU since 1990 and has been engaged in development fieldwork, research and implementation for more than 30 years.
Dr. Branch's former WOCCU positions include economist, manager of research and development, regional manager for Latin America, director of technical services, vice president of development services and executive vice president and COO. He has worked with credit union, microfinance and other financial institution services for more than 20 years.
Dr. Branch has developed programs to update and expand the savings based financial services of credit unions worldwide. Technical duties have included designing programs to transfer financial management practices, policies, procedures, tools, products, technologies and management skills to credit unions in Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean.
Dr. Branch has undertaken credit union development assignments in Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Moldova, Nigeria, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, the Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia. He co-authored Striking the Balance in Microfinance: A Practical Guide to Mobilizing Savings (2002) with Janette Klaehn and co-edited Safe Money (2000) with Glenn Westley.
In 1990, Dr. Branch received his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in 1981 his Master of Arts in Latin American studies at the University of Texas-Austin. He received his Bachelor of Arts in government and Spanish, graduating magna cum laude from Bowdoin College, Maine, in 1979.
About the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU)
World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) is the leading international trade association and development agency for credit unions. Since 1971, WOCCU has increased access to high quality financial services worldwide by strengthening credit unions using a well defined and thoroughly tested development model.
In addition to offering innovative technology solutions, WOCCU's technical assistance programs equip credit unions and other types of financial cooperatives with the tools and techniques necessary to strengthen their financial management and deliver fairly priced financial services to large numbers of poor and low-income people. Unlike many microfinance technical assistance providers that focus exclusively on credit, WOCCU's approach emphasizes the mobilization of member savings as the primary source of financing. This savings-based approach allows credit unions to reach great scale in financial service provision and instills a level of financial discipline that ensures long-term sustainability.
WOCCU builds national credit union networks that enable safe and sound institutions to reach greater efficiencies of scale, employ new technologies and provide a broader array of services and service points to members. WOCCU also works closely with credit union leaders, national government officials and policy makers to create appropriate and effective regulatory environments for credit unions.
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