National credit union body supports Cultivate as a farm finance brand

THE Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) has offered its support to Cultivate in becoming the national farm finance brand for Ireland’s credit union sector.

Announcing the ILCU’s support, its president Helene McManus, said: ‘The ILCU supports Cultivate as the agri brand of Irish credit unions. Most of the credit unions that offer Cultivate loans are members of the ILCU. We encourage any ILCU-affiliated credit union that wishes to enter the agri lending market to do so as part of the Cultivate brand.’

Finbarr O’Shea, manager of Bantry Credit Union, is a director of Cultivate and chair of its national marketing group. Welcoming the announcement, he said: ‘Cultivate is delighted to have received the support of the ILCU. This support is a massive boost to us as we seek to achieve our ambition of making Cultivate available to every farmer in the country.’

Cultivate provides unsecured lending of up to €75,000 for any farming purpose. Cultivate loans are available from five offices in two credit unions in West Cork: Access Credit Union’s offices in Bandon, Schull and Skibbereen; and Bantry Credit Union’s offices in Bantry and Castletownbere. Nationwide, Cultivate is available from over 120 credit union offices and the number of outlets is growing all the time.

Finbarr continued: ‘As the largest representative body of Irish credit unions, the ILCU is a key stakeholder and a key voice in the credit union sector. Cultivate’s success has been built on a collaborative platform through engagement with all the key agri stakeholders including farmer representative bodies, agricultural advisers, training bodies, agri businesses and merchants, farm accountants, marts and so on.

‘We are delighted to have the ILCU support this collaborative platform. And we look forward to working with the ILCU and all other stakeholders as together we improve and expand the Cultivate loan offering.’