Mission, Values and Principles

Our Mission

To become the leading financial institution providing services that enhance the quality of life of all, consistent with cooperative principles.

Our Values

Our Organization's Values describe the beliefs that guide our behaviour.

• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Loyalty
• Confidentiality

Brief History of RCCU

Roseau Cooperative Credit Union Ltd (RCCU) was established on May 30, 1951 by 68 persons who pooled  $600 to offer deposit and loan services to each other.  The credit union was formed under the stewardship of Sister Alicia de Tremmerie, a Belgian Catholic nun, with the support of pioneers like Edward Elwin, who became the credit union's first manager.

At that time, economic conditions were harsh and Sr. Alicia believed community based cooperative effort  through the credit union movement could help the poor of Dominica.  RCCU was the flagship credit union and after its formation, community credit unions sprang up all over the island. 

RCCU is now a financially sound, multi million dollar institution distinguished as the largest credit union in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) .  Membership has grown to over 25,000 members and assets to over a quarter billion dollars.  Members reside all across Dominica and internationally.   The credit union offers a complete line of financial  services including a variety of savings and deposit accounts, loans for all purposes, chequing, ATM and audio teller services. 

Brief History of the Credit Union Movement

Most people think of credit unions primarily as financial institutions.  But our roots are in the co-operative movement  which can be traced back to  Rochdale, England, in 1844. 

Times were harsh in Germany in the mid 19^th century and early pioneers like Herman Schulze-Delich and Frederick Raiffeisen experiemented with financial cooperatives to help farmers struggling from the effects of economic depression, crop failures,  famine and usury. Raiffeissen is credited with expanding the credit union idea to its fullest potential.  Credit unions were seen as having both an economic and social role providing a  way of building community, teaching and encouraging thrift and self-help. 

Such was the need, the concept of cooperative credit spread quickly to other European countries while still being refined and proven in Germany.  Democratic member control was key to the success of these societies and fundamental credit union operating principals such as one member one vote, granting of loans based on character, payment of dividends, reasonable interest rates on  loans  were practiced.

The concept crossed the Atlantic to North America and the first credit union was started by a Canadian journalist,  Alphonse Desjardins,   in  Quebec in 1901.  The first credit union in the United States was chartered in 1909 by the parishioners of St. Mary's Church in Hampshire with help from Desjardins.  Edward Feline and Roy Bergengren are considered the pioneers of the US movement.

Researchers have concluded that Caribbean people were introduced to the cooperative movement sometime towards  the end of the 19^th century.  The first attempts to organize cooperative ventures were in Guyana.  The Peoples Cooperative Bank started in Jamaica in 1905 was the first recorded Caribbean financial cooperative.  In the early 1940s, the concept of credit unions was formally introduced into the Caribbean by missionaries from Canada and the USA.  The idea of credit unions was accepted and credit unions were organized in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago in the early forties and in Dominica in 1951.