The Founder

Kevin Yates is often regarded as the founder of the credit union movement in Australia.  In October 1946, Mr Yates founded Universal Credit Union in Sydney. There had been co-operative banking in Australia before but historian Gary Lewis noted that Universal “was considered by many to be the first ‘true’ credit union in Australia because it relied entirely upon member subscriptions and was designed to encourage the formation of other independent credit unions”.

Kevin came across credit unions while stationed in Canada during WWII, where he noticed a sign for Perpetual Help Credit Union on Vancouver Island. He was invited to sit in on a Perpetual Help meeting and was deeply impressed. It is said that he came away from the meeting convinced that credit unions were the answer to the problems of “the common man”.

His achievements include being admitted to the Founders Club of the Credit Union National Association of America, assisting in the foundation of the NSW Credit Union League, where he was a director. He helped launch the Co-operative Institute of NSW, the Australian Federation of Credit Unions Limited, the Australian Consumers Association (the forerunner of Choice), Quest (the credit union newspaper) and was an early champion of the Australian Credit Union Historical Co-operative which was the genesis of Australian Mutuals Archives.

Mr Yates passed away in 1987, a short two years after the Australian Credit Union Historical Co-operative launched.  Though our records suggest some in the credit union movement were concerned that ‘’a deathly silence” followed his passing, obituaries and tributes soon appeared everywhere from the Sydney Morning Herald, Credit Union News, CUNA Mutual Insurance Group, Credit Union National Association, INC (based in Wisconsin, USA), The Atlantic Co-operator (The Atlantic Co-operator is the flagship publication of Atlantic Co-operative Publishers Limited, a co-operative based in Moncton, New Brunswick, USA), The Catholic Weekly, Willoughby District Tennis Club, The Co-operative Courier, The Air Force Club News and our own Credit Union Chronicle, among others and rightfully so.

Below is a clip of Kevin Yates speaking in the oral history interview he gave to historian Richard Raxworthy in 1984. Australian Mutuals Archives holds around 600 oral history interviews with significant figures in the Australian customer owned banking sector.

‘I would say the basic theme was a better social order. The average man getting more from life than he was getting prior to co-operative developments. More for your money you might say, better quality of goods and services.’ – Kevin Yates, 1984