Pennine Community Credit Union to reopen branches

The not-for-profit cooperative, that provides savings and loan accounts to communities across Burnley and Pendle, will reopen on Tuesday, May 26th, at noon.

It has been servicing its 10,000 account holders through telephone and online channels during the coronavirus outbreak

John Glen MP, Economic Secretary to Treasury, recently wrote to credit unions to praise frontline essential financial services for the vital role they are playing during the coronavirus crisis

“The Government has always been clear that the financial sector has a vital role to play at a time when many face financial difficulty," he said.

The credit union has been working on plans to reopen the branches to account holders, listening to the government’s advice, while taking in the views of both staff and account holders.

On March 18th, the government identified a number of staff within the finance sector as essential workers, and this has allowed PCCU to continue to keep the majority of its services operating.

CEO Kathryn Fogg gave some detail regarding how the credit union had been operating and the measures they have taken to reopen

“We understood when we closed the branches at the end of March that many people in our community relied on the services that the PCCU provides.

"We hope we kept our promise to offer as close to a full service as possible via online and telephone channels but now we are ready to reopen.”

PCCU has implemented a range of measures to help with social distancing including restricting the number of account holders at the cashier counters to one person at any one time, signage to support the two metre social distancing advice and limited staff at the counters.

“We anticipated this may cause some disturbance when visiting a branch but hope account holders understand we are doing this for them, the community and the staff member’s best interest," added Kathryn.

The branches will open Monday to Friday only, with no Saturday morning hours until further notice.