13 May 2019
Lloyds Banking Group Credit Union Development Fund Open for 2019
Funding is available for existing credit unions in the UK to help strengthen their financial position and to give them the capacity to develop new strategies for sustained and effective growth.
The Lloyds Banking Group Credit Union Development Fund is part of the Group’s ‘Helping Britain Prosper Plan,’ which was launched in March 2014, and is part of its commitment to improve financial inclusion levels across the UK.
A total of £1 million is being made available again this year.
Applications can be made for the following funding:
- Large Grants (of between £50,000 and £100,000) will provide a contribution to a credit union’s reserves and help remove barriers to growth and innovation. Open to all credit unions including previous Large Grant winners (with some additional criteria).
- Seed Grants (of between £10,000 and £20,000) to help credit unions invest in resources and activities to improve sustainability and increased efficiency for lending, such as the costs related to a merger or investment in digital improvements. Please note there will be a very small number of these seed grant awards, totalling less than 10% of the total fund.
Existing credit unions that have recently merged or that are considering a merger in the future can apply as long as they are registered in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or Isle of Man and are fully compliant with all FCA and PRA regulations (including complying with all capital requirements).
Priority may be given to:
- Credit unions that are sharing data with credit reference agencies in order to help individuals to build their credit score, overall national credit scoring profiling and the credit union to manage their debt default exposure. (This will be a condition of grant if not already in place).
- Those credit unions that serve communities in the most deprived communities according to the National Indices of Multiple Deprivation.
- Credit unions seeking funding to support mergers.
The fund is being delivered in partnership with the Credit Union Foundation.
The deadline for applications is 30 June 2019.