The European Union Tacis Project Credit Cooperatives Russian Federation

Project Implementation

Main results achieved over the three years of the Project implementation

Training sessions for the management of more than half of Russian credit unions were conducted in line with the curricular approved by the federal Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, which encompassed the various aspects: credit co-operation history, legal issues of credit union activities, accountancy and audit, crediting, financial analysis, financial management, management and marketing.

The training in practical aspects of crediting with regard for urban, rural and farming-related specifics was conducted for credit unions.

Training for farmers was conducted to address the issue of business planning and application of other mechanisms that provide access to credit resources.

The programs of intensive coaching and consulting targeting 15 credit unions – the Project partners- were fully implemented and resulted into enhancement of the credit union management skills and the financials of their respected credit unions.

A system for overall assessment of credit unions’ performance – LFM2 – was developed, which is used both for external audit and the credit unions’ self-assessment and enables the dynamics analysis of various credit unions’ activity aspects and benchmarking.

A computer program for a credit union financial monitoring was developed, capacitating the credit union in monitoring a big group of its financial parameters and take a timely corrective action in case of shortcomings identified, and to budget further financial activities according to various development scenarios.

An overall support was provided to the initiatives of credit unions regarding establishment and maintenance of the work coordination of oblast-level credit union associations aimed at provision of their member credit unions with essential consultancy, trainings, financial monitoring, etc. Specifically, assistance was provided in development and implementation of business plans, action plans, and self-assessment.

Consultancy and support was provided in creation of united credit unions (based on the committed credit union associations), as 2nd tier elements of the credit co-operation system, which, upon accumulating the required capital and experience, can be re-registered as co-operative banks.

Collaboration was initiated and established among all international technical assistance projects supporting creation of the credit co-operation system in Russia.

An Intranet System for Project Library materials - the Reference Centre was developed.

A Computer-based CDs-installation software with dual language support, integrated search system for the Credit Cooperatives Project final materials Library was developed.

The Credit Cooperatives Project Web Site was awarded by the EC as “The Best achievement of the Project”.

Project Results:

As main result of the Project’s support in the three selected Pilot Regions (Astrakhan Oblast, Republic of Buryatiya, Yaroslavl Oblast) and in 12 additional regions, where project results was distributed through a dissemination campaign. 19 regions represented at the Training Seminars.

The project held 139 seminars with more than 3500 participants, elaborated and provided 7500 copies of information 7 different manuals, 2 leaflets, 2 conference readers and 4 poster. Two study tours were organised to France to show the experience in Western Europe.

The Tacis Project supported 1st and 2nd level RSCC and partner organisations in the pilot regions with office equipment and seasonal agricultural inputs. To develop the structure of the rural credit co-operative system, the Project promoted the creation of oblast level co-operatives in three regions. In Yaroslavl the oblast RSCC “Partner” developed even a revolving fund for its 1st-level member-RSCCs.

One obstacle for further development of the RSCC-System was the unclear legal status of RSCCs. Here the Tacis Project also promoted together with its partners the federal Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Rural Credit Co-operative Union (RCCU) the Law on Credit Co-operation, so it was accepted by the federal Duma during first reading.

Summarising it can be said that this Tacis Project significantly contributed to sustainable regional development in over 19 Russian Regions. The EU support programme had a great impact for the Savings and Credit Co-operatives in Russia to link on with its enormous historical experience until the Revolution and do a major step ahead towards modern standards of co-operative banking.