About London Community Credit Union
At London Community Credit Union we provide an ethical banking service for our members. This includes loans, savings and current accounts.
If you live, work or study in the London boroughs of Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest or the City of London, you can join us.
We are mutually owned and managed by our members. This means we don’t exist to simply make profits for shareholders, like High Street banks do. We believe in ethical banking and so we focus on providing the best possible service and extending access to financial services to all members of the community.
Do you want to join and start saving?
Joining is a simple process. Visit any one of our 3 branches to complete an application form or you can join online here.
Do you want to join and apply for a loan?
If you want to request a loan you don’t have to join us first. You can complete this single join & borrow application.
We will ask you to deposit £10 into your savings account before confirming your membership.
Find out more about us below or read: What is a credit union?
- Read Our Story
Tower Hamlets Credit Union, the forerunner to London Community Credit Union was established in 2000. It was set up with the support of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and served as part of the council’s anti-poverty initiative. The first office was opened in Roman Road, Bow, from where we still serve the local community to this day. Following rapid growth, we opened a second branch in Bethnal Green in 2002 and then a third in Poplar in 2005. Following our success in Tower Hamlets we were invited to open a branch in Hackney by the leaders of Hackney Council. To allow us to do this, we extended the reach of our ‘common bond’ which defines the area in which we can operate. We rebranded and adopted our current name, London Community Credit Union. We opened in Mare Street, Hackney in 2010. In 2015 following a merger with Newcred credit union in Newham, we opened a fifth branch in Stratford. This branch relocated to new premises in the heart of Stratford in November 2018. Today we have over 15,000 active members and employ more than 50 people. Our 5 branches are open six days a week and we offer telephone and online banking.
- How we operate
By opening an account with us you become a member, rather than a customer. This means you own a stake in us and have a say in how we operate. We encourage every member to save and through pooling our savings we generate a common fund through which we can extend our banking services and provide low-cost loans. Interest paid on loans is our main source of income. If we do make a profit, members can decide to award themselves a dividend payment at our annual general meeting. The more you save with us, the greater your share of the dividend. And the more you save, the more you can borrow. Each year, our annual general meeting elects members to a volunteer board of directors. The board governs the credit union, meeting monthly in addition to holding committee meetings to manage more specific areas such as audit, credit control and loans. Each year a quarter of the board membership is required to retire ahead of board elections. Retiring members are eligible to seek re-election. All members of the credit union are bound by THE RULES OF LONDON COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION. See who’s currently on our board of directors
- How we are regulated
As a financial service provider, we have to comply with strict rules relating to the way we operate, to ensure we manage your money appropriately. London Community Credit Union is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Our Firm Reference Number is 213743. You can confirm the details of our registration on the Financial Services Register. As an organisation regulated by the FCA we subscribe to the Financial Ombudsman Service, an independent service to which you can refer complaints if you are not satisfied with our handling of them. You can read more about ‘How we handle complaints’. Eligible savings held with London Community Credit Union are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. London Community Credit Union was incorporated under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 (formerly the Provident and Friendly Societies Act 1965) and the Credit Unions Act 1979 on the 1st December 2000. Registration no. 640c You can see details of our registration on the Mutuals Public Register