United States
The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) created a product designed to assist credit union employees in bringing financial services to credit union members in rural parts of Latin America and Africa. This "PDA" product is the combination of both specialized software and hardware that credit union employees, usually loan officers or credit union promoters, use to perform a variety of financial transactions in "the field". Such financial transactions include:
- Sign up new members
- Capture savings/deposits
- Fill out loan applications
- Verify loan information
- Perform withdrawals
- Facilitate collections
As a result of the 2010 Global Women's Leadership Forum presentation in which Dolores Rivera Ramirez, network member and General Manger of Caja Solidaria Zongolica in Mexico, explained the PDA product's impact at her credit union, Ventura County Credit Union (VCCU) expressed an interest in implementing this product at their institution to provide financial services to local immigrant workers.
In the first quarter of 2011, WOCCU will begin working with VCCU to implement the PDA pilot program and determine its effectiveness within the U.S. market.
