Bantry Credit Union has launched a new loan facility especially designed for farmers and farming families.
BANTRY Credit Union has launched a new loan facility especially designed for farmers and farming families.
Cultivate local farm financing is a loan service, which focuses on farmers to provide financing for items such as investing in new or second-hand machinery, purchasing livestock or investing in new buildings.
The new financing service was launched at Bantry Credit Union by County Mayor, Cllr Pat Gerard Murphy, who said that Bantry Credit Union is more than just another financial institution.
‘When you walk into your local credit union you are greeted by local people, who are making decisions locally instead of being sent up to a head office in Dublin where the person making the decision doesn’t know you, your business or your area. I believe this will be a key driving force behind the success of Cultivate and indeed of other initiatives that Bantry Credit Union is driving,’ Cllr Murphy said.
The Cultivate loan service can provide up to €50,000 over seven years and can be designed with repayments scheduled either quarterly, half-yearly, or annually.
Speaking at the launch, credit union director Joe Cronin said: ‘The response so far has been very positive. People seem to like the key features of the credit union approach to loan applications,’ which includes dealing locally and in person with a familiar friendly face, being able to talk straight and get straight answers and, of course, the speed of access to loans officers and speed of reply to questions.’Bantry Credit Union manager Finbarr O’Shea said that the Cultivate product has been a great success everywhere it has been developed in the past two years.
‘We are putting in place appropriate structures and mechanisms to ensure we have sound foundations for what we believe will be a national player in the provision of finance to farmers,’ Finbarr said.
‘Cultivate has the wholehearted endorsement of the IFA and other farming organisations – IFA’s president launched three of the five Cultivate Groups and his colleague, Martin Stapleton, national chair of the IFA’s Farm Business Committee, launched the another two.
‘Personal, local friendly service has always been the hallmark of the credit union approach to personal lending. We are now bringing this same face-to-face, customer-comes-first philosophy to our farm lending business as well.’
