After the Scottish people voted to reject a referendum to gainindependence from Great Britain Sept. 18, it was business as usualfor Scotland's 106 credit unions.

The landmark no vote gave credit unions the certainty to planahead, knowing that the legislation will continue to originate fromthe British Parliament and regulation will be consistent acrossScotland, England and Wales, Frank McKillop, policy manager at theAssociation of British CreditUnions Limited, in Manchester, England, said in an emailinterview with CU Times.

“Like the overall population, Scotland's credit unionpractitioners were split between 'yes' and 'no,'” he said. “So,while meeting with key government officials to ensure creditunions' interests were considered, ABCUL remained strictly neutralthroughout this campaign.”

According to international media reports, 55% voted against theScottish independence referendum and 45% voted forindependence.

An online and telephone survey of 2,047 adults conducted byThe Guardian, a British national daily newspaper, foundthat nearly half of the survey's respondents voted against theindependence referendum because the “risk of becoming independentlooked too great when it came to things like currency, EuropeanUnion membership, the economy, jobs and prices.”

McKillop pointed out that had Scotland voted to become anindependent country, it would have created a number of issuesinvolving regulations, deposits guarantees, cross-border operationsand other issues around currency variation and placing depositswith British banks.

He described Scotland's credit union movement as thriving with355,000 members and $762 million in assets.

A brochure for the World Council of Credit Unions Conferencehosted in Glasgow, Scotland, in July 2011 boasted that the city wasthe credit union capital of Great Britain with 34 credit unionsserving more than 120,000 members, or about one in five ofGlasgow's 598,000 residents.