How Sligo Credit Union simplified Board meetings and risk management
"The Risk Management system has been a real asset to the organisation. It’s straightforward for the Board to visualise and understand the metrics, so deciding on controls and actions is much easier.”
Client:Sligo Credit Union
Sector:Finance
Location:United Kingdom
- Meetings and Board Management
- Risk Management
About Sligo Credit Union
Founded in 1965, Sligo Credit Union is a member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperative serving the people of Sligo, Leitrim (Drumkeerin), and Roscommon (Boyle & Keadue). We’re about real impact: offering fair-rate savings, loans, current accounts, and even green financing, all reinvesting value back into our members, not outside shareholders. Our services are built for convenience, online and mobile banking 24/7, a user-friendly app, and multi-channel access make managing your money seamless. Guided by the ethos “For you, not profit,” we’re more than finance, our Community Fund, sponsorships, and member-led governance ensure we stay rooted in local values while empowering every member’s financial future
The Problem
Sligo Credit Union’s previous risk management tools were clunky, restrictive, and heavily reliant on providers for changes. They resorted to Excel, which was inefficient, insecure for Board reporting, and left staff and Board members without clear visibility or control.
The Solution
OneAdvanced's Meetings & Board Management, Risk Management and Governance & Risk Software.
The Result
With OneAdvanced, Sligo Credit Union secured Board meetings, simplified risk management, and improved decision-making with faster, clearer processes.
Serving the needs of a community
Sligo Credit Union is a member-owned co-operative, set up over 50 years ago with the sole purpose of serving their members and giving them control over their financial affairs. Every member enjoys an equal opportunity to vote and participate in decisions, reflecting the people-focused, transparent, and trustworthy values of the Credit Union.
They are part of a heavily regulated sector, which governs many of the Board’s decisions on behalf of its members. There has been the introduction of the new Credit Union Act, and other regulations covering areas such as Anti-Money Laundering and Data Protection. At Sligo Credit Union, they have made great efforts to keep pace with an evolving business environment, increased scrutiny, and growing member requirements.
But they knew it was essential for the staff and Board members to have a clearer understanding of their risks, as the decisions they make are crucial for our organisation to keep moving forward.
“Our previous Risk Management software was extremely clunky. For example, if we were to make a change by adding in a risk specific to us, we had to apply to the software provider, who had to apply to the software company to make that change. You can’t operate like that. It meant the Risk Management system wasn’t ours; it belonged to the IT company. We moved back to Excel as it was easier to use but certainly not ideal.” Carmel Mullaney, Risk & Compliance Manager.
Finding an alternative to stressful and time-consuming processes
Having invested heavily in upgrading their software and IT platforms, they needed to manage the security of our Board and committee meetings (and the documents which were attached to these meetings). It was also essential to own the risk register and its upkeep. The other consideration was that the Board needed to be able to use it; simplicity was key.
Carmel Mullaney explains; “Like other Credit Unions, we developed our risk management from infancy, with our first attempts recorded and managed on Excel spreadsheets. To ensure our compliance with the Credit Union Act of embedding and integrating risk into our day-to-day operations, we knew we needed to evolve from Excel and invested in a risk management software solution. This again was an improvement on where we had started from, but we found we were hampered by software constraints and subsequently we could not demonstrate that the risk management system was our risk management system, we were at the behest of the software provider.”
A seamless solution for managing risks and Board meetings
Risk Management
After hearing about OneAdvanced from fellow Credit Unions and the benefits they were gaining, we participated in a workshop at the CUMA conference. It quickly became apparent that OneAdvanced’s Governance platform would offer us the control we needed in a way that suited both staff and Board members.
Carmel Mullaney explains; “The interface is clean and simple, and you don’t need a database qualification (or to be an IT expert) to use it. It’s straightforward to use, looks good, and the metrics are there for everyone to see. The Chair was particularly positive, and a demo was arranged for the Board who were also very happy with it. They could see the benefits and how easy it was to use. Following that, an implementation plan was put in place, and training was arranged; it was all effortless.
The Risk Management system has been a real asset to the organisation. It’s straightforward for the Board to visualise and understand the metrics, so deciding on controls and actions is much easier.”
Meetings & Board Management
Organisers of Board meetings quickly found the collating of the agenda and uploading documents was so much quicker, along with the peace of mind that document access was much more secure than it was before, making the whole process less stressful. Board members, and the Chair in particular, found it added structure to the meetings. Adding time slots to the agenda has meant the discussions are much more focused and meetings are of a higher quality.
Carmel adds; “Setting up the Board meetings and management of those meetings is poles apart from what we were doing. Reports which have been submitted late can be added without affecting the agenda or the indexing. It wasn’t easy to manage or for Board members to find what they needed before they started using OneAdvanced’s Meetings & Board Management system."