An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir October 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie 14 | o n 28th August, An Cosantóir visited ANSAC Credit Union in Amiens Street Dublin, where we met with ANSAC CEo Martin Cosgrave and Assistant Man- ager Gillian Dunne, two of its longest serving employees. Established in february 1993, ANSAC (Army Naval Service Air Corps) Credit Union was the brainchild of members of the recently formed PDfoRRA. All members of a credit union must share a common bond and for ANSAC this is membership of PDFoRRA or be- ing the spouse, partner or child of a member of PDFoRRA. Similar to all credit unions ANSAC works on the premise that mem- bers' savings (shares) are used to provide a loan fund for other members. Therefore, it is in everyone's interest that members continue to save even while paying off a loan. While it is perfectly legitimate for someone to use their shares to clear a loan, this reduces the loan funds available, and thereby lessens members' chances of attain- ing a loan. In May 1994 ANSAC opened its doors in the top floor of the PDFoRRA offices on Capel Street Dublin, where it stayed for two years before moving to 75 Amiens Street in 1996. At that time the credit union had two fulltime staff; it now has eight full-time and one part-time. Speaking of the duties of the staff, Gillian told us: "It's not as simple as just approving a loan, we have to make sure the loan application is administered within the Central Bank's regulations and assess the applicant's credit rating and their ability to repay; basically their income versus their expenditure." Martin added: "We always look for ways to approve a loan, not for reasons not to approve it. That's always been our ethos. Also, we have no loan restrictions imposed on us by the Central Bank because during the Celtic Tiger period we maintained prudent lending policies, which resulted in our bad debt provisions being one of the lowest in the country at 0.5%, against a national average of 16%." Martin also told us about ANSAC's close co-operation with CAFNBo*, through which a member's CAFNBo subscrip- tion may be used as security, without affecting any claim or death benefit. Gillian says that one of the most popular packages avail- able through ANSAC is their Easy Payment Plan Service (EPPS), commonly known as the Budget Plan, which is used to spread the cost of domes- tic bill payments, such as car insurance or home heating oil, evenly over the year through a weekly deduction. As these budget plans are usually conservatively estimated, they nearly always result in a surplus in the account at the end of the year. Payment is deducted at source from the member's payroll and the small administrative fee charged for implementing the plan is offset by the savings accrued from not incurring transaction fees such as bank charges or electronic fund transfer fees. The EPPS also allows DF pensioners, who were always used to getting paid weekly, to have their monthly pension paid in to their ANSAC account and from there paid weekly into their bank account. In recent years ANSAC has been transformed and now nearly 100% of its business takes place online, where transactions can be made through www.ansaccu.ie, which is available 24 hours a day. "In addition," Gillian told us, "we hope to launch the ANSAC app shortly, which among other things will allow members to check their account or transfer money." The app will be free to download for both Apple and Android devices. The final step in complete digitalisation of ANSAC's pro- cedures is the facility for a secure digital signature, which they hope to implement in the coming weeks. Today ANSAC has over 7,500 members and membership is growing every day. The current marketing campaign is aimed at letting all family members know they can join ANSAC as well. ANSAC is also actively trying to recruit more barrack reps throughout the Defence Forces and would ideally like to eventually have five reps in each location. These people would be the local face of ANSAC, and promote the credit union through posters and by giving talks to re- cruit platoons, career courses, and open days. While many A CREDIT UNIoN FoR THE DIGITAL AGE ANsAC by SGT WAYNE FITzGERALD

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