Elected at 45th annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur; two-year term through 2028

Korea's credit unions introduce co-growth partnership system to 22 Asian nations

Ko Young-chul, chairman of the National Credit Union Federation of Korea, is elected as the new president of the Asia Confederation of Credit Unions at the organization's 45th annual general meeting on Sunday. [National Credit Union Federation of Korea]
Ko Young-chul, chairman of the National Credit Union Federation of Korea, is elected as the new president of the Asia Confederation of Credit Unions at the organization's 45th annual general meeting on Sunday. [National Credit Union Federation of Korea]

Ko Young-chul, chairman of the National Credit Union Federation of Korea, has been elected president of the Asia Confederation of Credit Unions, known as ACCU. His two-year term runs from 2026 to 2028. The election marks the fifth consecutive time South Korea's credit union federation has held the ACCU presidency since 2018.

The federation said Monday it participated in the 2026 Asia Credit Union Forum and ACCU annual general meeting, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Friday through Sunday. Ko was elected president at the 45th annual general meeting on Sunday.

ACCU holds the Asia Credit Union Forum each year to share best management practices among Asian credit unions and explore directions for the credit union movement. This year's forum drew 571 credit union representatives from 22 Asian countries. ACCU currently counts 220 cooperative organizations from the Asia-Pacific region as sponsoring members supporting credit union development in developing countries, of which 152 are South Korean credit unions. Twenty-nine domestic sponsoring member credit unions sent representatives to this year's forum.

The theme of this year's forum was "Unspoken Realities, Bold Bridges: Credit Union Transformation and Resilience Era 2026+." Participants discussed the role credit unions should play and strategies for growth in a rapidly changing financial environment, focusing on digital transformation, AI adoption, governance and organizational innovation, and member-centered management.

South Korea's credit union federation presented its co-growth partnership system under the theme "Connecting Growth Beyond the System," sharing the program's operational experience and outcomes. Introduced in 2014, the system pairs larger credit unions — designated as "partner unions" — with smaller ones, called "growth unions," to share management expertise and human resources in a mutual-cooperation model. The federation shared with member countries cases in which inter-union cooperation strengthened individual unions' competitiveness and self-sufficiency, leading to sustainable growth.

"For credit unions to grow sustainably amid a rapidly changing financial environment, countries must share their experiences and capabilities and find solutions together," Ko said. "We will work to share the cooperative experience South Korea's credit unions have built with member countries and to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of credit unions across Asia."

South Korea's credit union federation hosted the first Asia Credit Union Conference domestically in 1971 and played a leading role in founding ACCU, contributing since then to the development of the Asian credit union movement through education and international cooperation projects. The federation plans to continue expanding exchanges and best-practice sharing among member countries and to strengthen solidarity and cooperation in addressing common challenges facing Asian credit unions.


won@heraldcorp.com