ULSAN — The former chairman's office at Ilsan Community Credit Cooperative in Ulsan's Dong District now serves local senior citizens. Park Hak-cheon, who became chairman in 2020, handed over the office and its meeting space to the Ulsan Senior Forum and the Ulsan Dong District Senior Club.
"I persuaded the staff to move downstairs with me so we could bring in the two organizations," Park said on the 21st. "A credit cooperative should go beyond being a simple financial institution and become a hub for community welfare."
After the two organizations relocated from the outskirts of Ulsan to the cooperative's main office, their operations expanded. The number of senior jobs supported by the Senior Club rose about ninefold, from roughly 200 a year before the move to about 1,800 now. Related government funding grew from about 2 billion won a year to more than 12 billion won.
Ilsan also allocates about 200 million won a year to community programs. "Handing over a donation and calling it done means nothing," Park said. "Members and employees have to take part in the volunteer work themselves for the community to feel the benefits twice over."
A prime example is its homemakers' college, which has run for nearly 30 years and has produced 29 graduating classes totaling about 1,500 alumni. Ilsan has organized them into groups such as the Social MG (short for "MaeulGeumgo," Korean for community credit cooperative) Support Corps and the Green MG Action Corps, which serve meals and clean up the environment. The Human MG Sharing Corps, made up of members of the cultural center's singing classes, performs at welfare facilities. In recognition of that work, Ilsan received a commendation from the Ulsan mayor at the 27th Social Welfare Day ceremony on the 16th.
The cooperative has also maintained its scholarship program. Through the end of last year, it had awarded a cumulative 881 million won to 3,135 recipients, including top students and children of members. It also runs support programs for traditional markets, partnership projects with the small business association and the restaurant industry council, and backing for volunteer crime patrols and volunteer fire brigades.
The community-focused approach has translated into growth in size and earnings. Founded in 1978, Ilsan saw total assets rise 59.5% to 553.2 billion won at the end of last year from 346.7 billion won at the end of 2020, when Park took office. Net profit grew to 4.44 billion won last year from 1.47 billion won in 2020. In the first half of this year alone, it posted 4.16 billion won. On the strength of those results, Ilsan has been named an annual grand prize winner in the Community Credit Cooperative management evaluation for five straight years, from 2022 through this year. It has now extended that streak, having first taken the top award in 2022.
Park, now serving another term, says his focus has shifted from expanding size to strengthening the cooperative's foundation. "We will build a stable financial structure by raising reserves from the current 30.7 billion won to about 55 billion won, or 10% of assets," he said.
