Village Financial Cooperative cleared a major hurdle, becoming the first credit union in the past 15 years to be approved by the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dec. 12 approval from the Minnesota Department of Commerce clears the way for the North Minneapolis-based credit union to have its deposits insured by the National Credit Union Administration. Once insured, the credit union, which is already servicing the community, offering low to no interest micro-loans, plans to be in full operation at its 227 Colfax Ave. N. location, with a grand opening set for around the time of Juneteenth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Village was born out of the Blexit movement, which began in Minneapolis following the police killing of Philando Castile. The term Blexit is a take on the word Brexit and originated more than a year prior to ultra-conservative commentator Canace Owens attempted to co-opt it for the purposes advocating Blacks exit to the Democratic Party. The credit union was the community\u2019s answer to questions of how Black people can elevate in a system that seems designed against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mission and message of Village has resonated with the community to the tune of 1,600 pledged members totaling $4.2 million in assets, said Village representative Samantha Pree-Stinson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA majority of those pledges are by Black people who are Northsiders,\u201d said Pree-Stinson, who oversees Village\u2019s organizational alignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to Village, area residents in need of a short-term loan and with limited incomes were subject to becoming prey from a variety of payday lending companies charging as much as 300 percent (and more) in interest. With Village\u2019s New Day micro-loans Pree-Stinson said members can borrow up to $500 at zero to eight percent interest. To date, the credit union has lent $13,000 to borrowers. Of those on the receiving end, she said 57 percent are Northside residents. Seventy-eight percent are women \u2026 96 percent are Black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe loans are not given by credit score. We look at the borrower\u2019s two most recent pay stubs and credit-to-debt ratio to determine if a person is qualified and at what percent,\u201d said Pree-Stinson. \u201cSo, you can see how it\u2019s closed the gap created by predatory lenders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pree-Stinson said Village Borrower\u2019s have a 100 percent repayment rate; meaning they have either fully repaid their loans or are paying on time according to the terms of their loans. Those payments are also reported to credit bureaus, thus offering the opportunity to improve credit scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019re offering classes \u2026 free classes \u2026 on financial planning and paying off debt. We\u2019re making sure our members have the tools they need to take control of their finances,\u201d said Pree-Stinson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Village Financial Cooperative cleared a major hurdle, becoming the first credit union in the past 15 years to be approved by the state. The Dec. 12 approval from the Minnesota Department of Commerce clears the way for the North Minneapolis-based credit union to have its deposits insured by the National Credit Union Administration. Once insured, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[38,2453,2452],"class_list":["post-3606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-minneapolis","tag-minnesota-department-of-commerce","tag-village-financial-cooperative","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3607,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions\/3607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}