Vancity Returns $18.3 Million – 30 Per Cent of 2019 Net Income – to Members and Communities
May 13, 2020 - Ever since Vancity was formed in 1946, it has used the tools of finance to do right by the world. More than 70 years later, Vancity’s 2019 annual report celebrates the credit union’s long-term authenticity as a financial co-operative. Vancity in 2019: Supporting members and communities in a changing world is Vancity’s last annual report of the decade and includes key achievements from the past ten years.
The report focuses on Vancity’s work during the 2019 calendar year and, as a result, does not cover its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this international crisis makes Vancity’s values-based banking model – as outlined in the report – even more essential, allowing the credit union to mobilize quickly to support members, employees and communities in an exceptionally difficult time.
In the face of these challenges, Vancity has proven time and again that doing the right thing for its members and their communities produces strong business results. The 2019 annual report outlines progress against key organizational targets and commitments. It showcases how Vancity creates value with stories about affordable housing, reducing food waste and supporting refugees.
Highlights in the 2019 report include:
- Members and communities to receive 30 per cent of Vancity’s 2019 net income, or $18.3 million, in 2020
- Vancity Investment Management goes fossil fuel-free across all funds
- The One-to-One program provides members with convenient, tailored planning advice with no minimum investment required
- Eight not-for-profit organizations receive $12 million in Vancity pre-development loans to create 1,538 new affordable rental housing units
- Vancity signs the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking
Vancity is committed to transparent, honest reporting and has again highlighted challenges that the credit union faced in 2019. These include preparing for consumer-directed finance (sometimes called open banking), helping women build their wealth, and measuring and reducing our climate impact.
Action on the climate crisis is a key theme of the Vancity 2019 annual report – this is Vancity’s first report according to the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Vancity’s values-based banking model is also aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In the 2019 Annual Report we mapped our loans against each of the goals and highlighted throughout the report how Vancity’s work supports them. The report was prepared in accordance with the International Integrated Reporting Framework and the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards, Core option. Its adherence to the AA1000 principles and key data in the report was externally assured.
About Vancity
Vancity is a values-based financial co-operative serving the needs of its more than 543,000 member-owners and their communities in the unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw people, with 60 branches in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Victoria, Squamish and Alert Bay.
As Canada’s largest community credit union, Vancity uses its $28.2 billion in assets and assets under administration to help improve the financial well-being of its members, while at the same time helping to develop healthy communities that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. Vancity is carbon neutral, a living wage employer and a member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values. It was the first Canadian financial institution to sign the UN’s Collective Commitment to Climate Action, which is related to the UN Environment Program’s Finance Initiative and the Principles for Responsible Banking.
Contact:
mediarelations@vancity.com
