Clockwise was established in 1992 as ‘Highfields Community Credit Union’- an anti-poverty initiative of the churches in Highfields.
Based at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Highfields its founder, Fr. John Lally, was supported by an enthusiastic bank of volunteers who championed the services the credit union provided.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the last 30+ years…
Launched as Highfields Community Credit Union.
Reached 200 Members.
Became first British Credit union to twin with an Irish Credit Union – Castlebar Credit Union.
We paid our first dividend of 5% to members & opened first school bank at Sacred Heart primary School.
We changed our name to Leicester Credit Union.
We became Clockwise Credit Union, covering Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. We also employed our first member of staff – Teresa Manning.
We reached 1000 members & moved to our first city centre office at Pocklington’s Walk.
We became one of the first community credit unions to offer Cash ISA’s.
We opened our second office in Melton Mowbray.
We launched the Clockwise current account & reached 5000 members.
We purchased our present office at 1 St. Nicholas Place.
Celebrated our 20th Anniversary and membership reached 7500.
Total lending to members since our launch reached £20 million.
We launched Engage pre-paid card for our members.
We celebrated our 25th Anniversary & launched our Community Grants Scheme to support local charities and community groups.
We launched Clockwise Mobile App and was awarded Five-Star Fairbanking Mark for our loan products. This was also the year we became an accredited Living Wage employer and launched our Rewarding Borrowers Scheme – an interest rebate for all our good borrowers.
We were happy to be awarded Cyber Essentials Plus mark
We presented our first Social Impact report and reached 15000 members. Our CEO was awarded MBE for services to Financial Inclusion and the credit union sector. We also moved to agency banking via Starling Bank – meaning our members now benefit from access to real-time in-bound and out- bound payments 24/7.
We merged with New Central Credit Union, Coventry. Our common bond now covers: Leicester, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland, Coventry, and Warwickshire. Our loan book reached £7.5 million. Our assets reached £13 million and our membership is over 20,000.
