Credit unions

A credit union is a financial co-operative that's owned and controlled by its members. They provide services to their members including:

• deposit taking
• savings
• lending

Credit unions are dual-regulated, which means they're regulated both by us (the FCA) and by the Prudential Regulation Authority[1] (PRA).

Getting authorised

Consumer credit activities

If your credit union also wishes to carry out regulated consumer credit activities, you may need to get authorisation from us.

Read more about credit unions carrying out consumer credit activities[6].

Reporting to us and the PRA

All credit unions must send an annual return and accounts to the PRA.

Read more about annual returns and reporting[7].

You must also report to us on other matters, including the identity of controllers

Find out more about other reporting requirements[8].

These documents will be published in the Mutuals Public Register[9].

Changing your details

Changes to a society's rules won't be effective until they've been registered by us. So, you must tell us of any changes to your credit union’s: 

• name
• registered office
• rules
• accounting year-end date

We may also need information about other changes.

Cancelling your registration or dissolving a credit union

You must tell us if your credit union no longer wishes to be registered, or if you wish to stop trading (be dissolved).

Find out how to dissolve, or cancel the registration[10] of a credit union.

More information

We worked with the PRA on reforming some of our rules for credit unions. Read more about this:

• Reform of the legacy Credit Unions Sourcebook PS 16/1[11]
• Credit Unions sourcebook (CREDS)[12]

More about mutual societies:

• find or request information on a society[13]
• mutual societies members’ rights[14]

Useful guides for credit unions

See our short guides:

• write a business plan[15]
• recruiting key persons and managing the risk [16]

Senior Managers and Certification Regime

Read more about the Senior Managers and Certification Regime for credit unions:

• workshops for credit unions slides[17]
• Senior Managers and Certification Regime[18] pages