Ukrainian Selfreliance in the past year signed up more than 1,600 new members, according to the National Credit Union Administration. That includes sponsored and working refugees admitted under the U.S. United for Ukraine program, mostly women and children, since fighting-aged men are barred from leaving. This brought the total to 14,000, at a growth rate triple that of theLoans and deposits also rose quickly; assets now stand at half a billion dollars, a one-third jump since 2020.
At that time, American federal credit unions were also still new. The association began forming these credit unions wherever Ukrainians settled. On Friday, one of my colleagues found out her uncle was killed in the war. Earlier in the week, Lviv was bombed, a residential complex, near thea well-known institution. It is difficult, it is sad. The Ukrainians here are resilient.
Under Mary Kolodij, our previous president, we did a better job letting people in the community know we now have more infrastructure, supporting more products — different types of mortgages, better auto-loan rates, investment-property loans, small-business loans. After Communism, were people in Ukraine ready for Western-style finance, with its emphasis on individual responsibility?