McCarter LaBorde Announces Goal of 1 Billion Members, 50% Women, in State of the Movement Address

Elissa McCarter LaBorde

​World Council of Credit Unions’ (WOCCU) President and CEO Elissa McCarter LaBorde laid out an aggressive new vision to grow the reach of credit unions from 400 million to one billion people, with at least 50% (500 million) of those members being women, in her State of the Movement Address at Monday’s first general session of the 2024 World Credit Union Conference.

“We are putting out a bold statement for gender equity and equality for our movement of the future, and we want you to walk with us as we strive to make this possible,” said McCarter LaBorde.

The WOCCU Board of Directors last week endorsed the new goal, along with a target of ensuring 50% of credit union leaders are women as well.

The announcement comes after the Global Women’s Leadership Network spent months gathering credit union gender data and insights from the global movement as part of a 15-year anniversary initiative.

McCarter LaBorde also asked credit union representatives from across the globe to celebrate unity as a movement, while also preparing them to embrace more innovation in order to make that new membership goal possible.

“No surprise, we are experiencing an even greater push for innovation at a pace and speed like we have never seen before,” said McCarter LaBorde. “Each of our 100 country contexts present slightly different challenges. But on one thing we agree: the need to reach young people, to counter an aging membership. And on this, we need to do better.”

Strategy in a World of Disruption

Keynote Speaker Shawn Kanungo continued the theme of innovation in Monday's general session, focusing specifically on disruptive innovation like AI.

He showed various examples of how credit unions with representatives in the room could be utilizing AI right now to be more competitive and relevant, using the website of Kenya Police SACCO as one example.

“I looked and you have a loan calculator. But when I went to the loan calculator, I downloaded it, and it ended up being an Excel file. And I said, ‘you know, this is not that helpful. So, what I’m going to do is create an interactive web app for you,’” said Kanungo, who then showed how he did that in minutes with an online AI tool. “And it started to come with a code. It started to come up with what I was looking for, and it finally came up with this final loan calculator.”

Kanungo said that that there is no option for credit unions other than to embrace this inevitable future.

“My belief is that there are going to be two types of leaders in the future. There are going to be leaders that leverage this technology, and there are leaders who are going to be irrelevant. That’s it. Those are the two options,” said Kanungo.

Still to come

The 2024 World Credit Union Conference continues Monday afternoon with a WOCCU breakout session on global advocacy and regulation, and two Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions' sessions on its engagement and resiliency efforts. 

Follow conference activities and see daily event photos on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram with #WCUC2024.

Presented in collaboration with the America’s Credit Unions, the 2024 World Credit Union Conference runs through Wednesday, July 24.

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