Examining the Impact of COVID-19 on the KingstownCooperative Credit Union in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 epidemic has hurt the worldwide financial industry. This paper analyzes and examines the effects of COVID-19 on the Kingstown Cooperative Credit Union in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This research employs a hybrid methodology that combines both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Empirical findings will offer valuable insights into the efficacy of credit union’s response to the pandemic.

1.0 Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced credit unions, fundamentally changing the nature of these financial cooperatives in unprecedented ways. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced credit unions to quickly adjust and navigate through a complicated intersection of economic issues and the requirements of their members. COVID-19 has created new, immediate needs for credit unions: Rapidly transitioning to remote work, serving members with reduced branch availability, reallocating branch staff to address increased call center traffic, and supporting members in financial distress through deferments, emergency lending, and more creative, tailored arrangements (Nelms & Dionne, 2020). Credit Unions also had to deal with the spike in digital banking and the burden on loan portfolios. By evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on credit unions, we can see how Kingstown Cooperative Credit Union, which is devoted to supplying complete credit services to the local communities, was affected.

1.1 Background to the study

Credit unions, such as the Kingstown Cooperative Credit Union (KCCU), focus and pay close attention to consumers’ interests, not the search for the most profits. Their role is to capitalize on the community through financial means, like credit, mortgage, and small- and medium-sized business support.

This study focuses on KCCU, one of the four credit unions within St. Vincent and the Grenadines (GECCU, PCCU, and SVTCCU).

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant threat to financial institutions globally, including credit unions. KCCU, with its strong community ties, was particularly impacted as its members, such as teachers and police officers, were exposed to higher risks during lockdown measures due to their front-line roles.

KCCU’s board of directors, known for its focus on empowering members by confronting challenges, had to navigate new economic difficulties brought on by the pandemic. They likely emphasized resilience, flexibility, and community well-being to guide their response.

From a microeconomic perspective, the pandemic threatened key sectors in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, particularly agriculture and tourism. This likely resulted in a sudden drop in employment and income security for many KCCU members.

COVID-19 potentially exacerbated societal, financial, and political inequalities hindering economic development. Credit unions like KCCU traditionally aim to bridge these gaps within communities. (Kluz, n.d.)

Evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on KCCU helps us understand its effectiveness in supporting its members and the broader community during economic hardship. Examining a specific credit union’s experience provides a more focused lens to analyze the challenges and potential successes in this context. A functioning economy and a resilient society rely on credit unions like KCCU to navigate such disruptions.

1.3 Problem Statement

The study aims to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on St. Vincent and the Grenadines Kingstown Cooperative Credit Union (SVG-KCCU). The main objective is to deal with the difficulties encountered by KCCUs in meeting their Members’ financial needs during this unprecedented crisis. Pivotal points of investigation will consist of assessing the pandemic impact on the provision of quick services, highlighting the particular challenges encountered by the SACCO in the course of the service delivery, and outlining the preventive measures adopted by the SACCO to reduce adverse effects on the members and its operations. The study will strive to get the answers to these questions, which will, in turn, provide us with a holistic understanding of the situation of KCCU during the epidemic and its dynamic response to the new business environment.

1.4 The Research Questions:

Since about 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on global health and financial sectors, hurting productivity. The author believed conducting research on the issue within a specific local context was crucial. The objective of the study was to assess the effects of COVID-19 on credit unions in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to address the following research inquiries:

• What was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service delivery inside KCCU?

• What was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on loan default rates in KCCU?

• To what extent did the COVID-19 pandemic hinder the productivity of credit union workers in KCCU?
• What were the effects of COVID-19 on the financial positions of KCCU?

1.6 Rationale or purpose of the study and focus of research

This study seeks to understand the impact of a global crisis like COVID-19 on four operational features of credit unions- service delivery, loan default rates, personnel productivity, and financial position. 

Then, the study will examine the four operational features of the Kingstowncooperative credit unions in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and conduct a causal-comparative analysis. This quantitative research design will analyze normal functioning compared to COVID-19 functioning. An investigation will highlight any financial discrepancies and indicate how to proceed. 

1.7 The aims and objectives of the study

Aims: 

The assessment of the four operational features of the Kingstown Cooperative Cooperative Credit Union of St Vincent and the Grenadines will aid in recovering any financial and economic loss caused by COVID-19. A credit union crisis blueprint can result from this assessment. This framework will prepare the members, staff, and management and indicate how to proceed during unprecedented crises. Measures can be taken to assist credit unions’ overall functioning and productivity by examining service delivery and personnel productivity. This is a human resource and organizational behavior aspect of the workforce. This study will identify any issues plaguing the credit union’s performance. 

Objectives:

This quantitative study uses structured, close-ended questionnaires to assess how COVID-19 affected the four operational features of the Kingstown Cooperative Cooperative Credit Union. The results will be collected, analyzed, and compared to performance during normal circumstances. The numerical value applied to the answers of each questionnaire will reveal any discrepancies and relay how to best proceed forward for effective credit union functioning. 

1.8 Significance of the research

It is necessary to assess how the stressors of COVID-19 affect operations. This ensures that community-based institutions can fully recover and prepare for future global crises. Credit unions are the backbone of developing communities. Therefore, measures must be in place to ensure they remain solvent. 

Although credit unions are small compared to commercial banks, their role in community development is considerably more significant due to their non-profit agenda. Therefore, protecting and encouraging performance assists community development. 

Secondly, measuring the impact of COVID-19 on loan default rates allows the researcher to gauge and interpret data to prevent loan delinquency. (Nigmonov & Shams, 2021)

1.9 Conclusion

The effective functioning of the Kingstown cooperative credit unions of St Vincent and the Grenadines is essential to maintaining community well-being, financial prosperity, and economic growth. The impact of the COVID-19 crisis is an important phenomenon to study as it was an unanticipated event that sent shock waves throughout the world’s financial sector. Analyzing economic resilience and recovery will protect and prepare the cooperative financial institutions of St Vincent and the Grenadines. 

2.0 Literature Review

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a profound and wide-reaching shift in credit union activities, such as operations and practices around the globe. A body of literature about several themes has emerged around how these member-owned cooperative financial institutions took advantage of these new situations brought about by the crisis. One of the things that came up is the imperative of fast scaling up of the use of technology and extension of digital services to provide the desired continuity and service delivery during confinements, unlike in the past when movement in an easier way. As competitiveness was still a vital issue, studies propagated that economic resilience and the ability to respond and become innovative swiftly became essential characteristics.

Though many have endeavored to figure out credit unions’ overall response strategy during the pandemic, the lack of research has been noticed, which mainly analyzes the four operational pillars – service delivery, loan delinquency rates, personnel productivity, and financial stability- that experienced the aftermath of COVID-19 limitations on the regular operations. This situation of relating many contexts of standard economic shocks across the Eastern Caribbean Region onto the four major credit unions in St. Vincent and the Grenadines pervaded a near pandemonium situation as these unions fought to stay afloat and maintain profitability.

While common ground can be drawn from the specific studies on how core credit union activities have been adversely affected, significant points can be extracted from these scholarly products. Principally, their homologous cooperative principles made them behave in a manner consistent with one another. It is also due to the culture of interdependent thinking, ethical values, and discipline that these different institutions meet similar patterns of adaptation. The most dramatic change was the sharp adoption of e-services, digital platforms, mobile apps, and upgrading technology infrastructure, where the administration interacted with the members (Al‐Zyoud & Ordonez‐Ponce, 2022). Social media utilization, a more comprehensive online presence, the installation of new ATMs, and such technological improvements have become a must-use compulsory instrument for credit unions to offer financial services and provide financial support for their communities.

Along with the digital evolution, nothing was just an unplanned patch. Digital evolution is the chosen mainstream for the future of service delivery. The politics of a policy deployment on an organizational level has been seen to be crucial in the rapid implementation of the newly emerged financial technology systems as it revealed that the policy of managerial flexibility and adaptability is the most important in the recovery from the pandemic’s impacts. Such system-level alterations were fundamental rules for a new era of technology’s convergence within mostly promissory credit union principles.

In addition, reference literature in an Atlantic Caribbean framework brings historical-political subject that helps to serialize the movement of credit unions and financial cooperatives throughout the years, comparing their role to banks (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2020). A comparative approach provides an overview of the tracking sector’s area of ​​strength, weakness, risk, and opportunity in this region (Anakpo et al., 2023). A Governance body like the Eastern Caribbean, Central Bank, and the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions also publish reports with relevant data on the area of payment systems, regulations frameworks, and basic financial structure in the regional economies (The Eastern Caribbean Economic and Currency Union, 2013; Eastern et al. Bank, 2022).

Regarding the broader picture, the UN, IMF, OECD, and World Bank are trustworthy organizations from which reports on the pandemic’s very distant implications on St Vincent and the Grenadines are published. These wide-ranging assessments capture economic indicators, fiscal forecasts, and policy responses and quantify the severe demand shocks emanating from the combined health and financial crises (SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES COVID-19 Macroeconomic and Human Impact Assessment Data, n.d.; “St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Article – “Request for Disbursement Under the Rapid Credit Facility,” “Press Release”; “Staff Report”; and “Statement by the Executive Director for St. Vincent the Grenadines” – 2021). Macro informatics involves calculating macroeconomic damage and mitigation strategies through stimulus packages and emphasizing building resilience on micro and macro levels. These are the main pillars of comprehensive reports.

Unfortunately, this field of study lacks a detailed analysis of the specific processes within credit unions; however, collectively, these researches suggest resilience, adaptability, digitalization, and coordinated responses as the main determinants of the way institutions have been able to get through the enormous shocks during the COVID-19 system. Furthermore, the World Council of Credit Unions highlights the role of economic crises, which, despite their unpredictable cause, intensify actions, innovations, and resilience building, hence providing the framework for instituting the systems for veering away from any future ordeals (COVID-19 et al. | World Council of Credit Unions, n.d). Besides a suitable cross-cutting theme, effective multi-stakeholder communication and collaboration have been pinpointed to constitute a significant part of the resilient environment (Home, no date).

Among all the research analyzed, the effects of COVID-19 on credit unions had multiple facets; therefore, these organizations had to undergo fundamental changes to adapt. Nevertheless, this study has a remarkable gap on exactly the laid-out ways such disruptive changes in the service delivery system were reflected in the loan portfolios, operational parameters, nature of workers, and financial performance of the Government, thus providing room for this study to create new empirical evidence and insights of St. Vincent and Grenadine’s context.

3.0. Proposed Methodology

This research project will adopt a mixed-methods research design, and some data will be obtained from primary data sources like interviews and questionnaires with the participants. In contrast, other data will be obtained from secondary data sources like government reports and academic literature. The aim is to conduct a holistic investigation of the four central credit cooperatives in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on how they have successfully led the struggle to meet members’ demands, particularly in their mission of providing essential services to their members following the coronavirus outbreak.

For this aspect, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with the officials of the credit unions, which will involve both the managers and the staff of the unions as well as the members of the board of the unions. These open-ended interviews will let them explain the aspects they understand best, the operations strategies, the decision-making processes, and the amendments made to continue their effectiveness in caring for the members. The interview will offer deeper, present-based data and create a picture of the unions’ reactions based on those in the closest surroundings to the situation.

Arithmetical data will be collected from inventories and offered to respondents representing credit union members. By administering these closed-ended questionnaires, we will obtain data about members, how satisfied they are, their usage patterns, their concerns, and generally how they feel during the pandemic period interacting with their credit unions. When a large sample size can be gathered, comprehensive analysis can be done quantitatively to capture trends and different correlation patterns.

To confirm veracity and acquire all-inclusive knowledge, the research will also be conducted from secondary sources on relevant literature. For academics, there will be journals such as Wiley’s Business & Society Review, Journal of Financial Stability, Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, and Financial Innovation. These editions will provide research on credit union governance, risk management, regulatory compliance, and financial innovations, which will influence service provision. The reports, statistics, and publications will be in a macro-level context provided by international organizations such as the IMF, World Bank, and OECD, and they will offer comprehensive coverage of the economic damages brought by the pandemic.

The mixed design ensures the implementation of empirical data drawn from various sources of research methods, which provides a complex, multi-dimensional exploration of the problem. The results can quantify the measurable outcomes (e.g., customer satisfaction levels) and the entire process, motivation, and lived experiences that caused the credit unions to adapt to do so in different ways during an unprecedented disruption.

During this research that involves human subjects, standard protocols and ethical guidelines will be followed as new norms, together with acceptable practices in field research. Before data collection, an ethics review will be done to get approval from the relevant institutional review boards or ethics committees. The information to be disclosed to every participant will be complete and detailed: i. the study’s primary purpose, ii. methodology, iii. risks/benefits, and iv. participant’s rights. Written informed consent will be requested from an individual before confirming participation.

A framework will be devised to prevent participants’ information from being exposed, and the privacy of their sensitive data will be protected. Data gets saved and precisely saved and anonymized shortly. In the process of the experiment, the study will provide a clear record of all the procedures, conscientiously depict the limitations, stay clear of any deceptive practices, and faithfully report the outcome without any bias. Consideration will be done to ensure that there is a harmonious respect for the cultural customs and values of the local St. Vincent and the Grenadines region.

This study aims to achieve thorough and trustworthy results through rigor applied alongside the mixed-methods design by holding the same ethical standards throughout the research process concerning members’ mission-centered aspect in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. Comparative business analysis can contribute to the revising of the policies and practices for financial cooperatives owned by their members, which would ensure their preparedness for any crises that might come about.

3.1 Research Design

This research design is causal-comparative quantitative. The reason for this design is to assess the cause and effect of COVID-19 on the four operational features of credit unions—namely, service delivery, default loan rate, personnel productivity, and financial positions. Generally, quantitative data evaluates the connection between two phenomena, reveals trends, and obtains critical insights for future forecasting and predictive tools. Qualitative research employs statistics to assess the mean (average value) and the median (middle value). Quantitative research gives numerical expression to the data. Not only is the impact of the independent variable on the dependent variable accurately measured, but trends can be revealed from numerical analysis. 

The research questions asked to verify specific degrees that require measurement, for example, the effect, impact, and extent that COVID-19 had on St Vincent and the Grenadines Credit Unions and their operational features. A causal-comparative quantitative research design will produce accurate data and reliable measurements. A causal-comparative quantitative research design measures the cause-and-effect relationship between independent and dependent variables. 

This paper showcases four dependent variables that separate themselves but are always related, i.e., service management, delinquency rates loans, personnel productivity level, and overall financial performance and stability. Contrary to the case of a single combined variable, the disaggregation process allows for conducting a detailed multilevel analysis, each of which reveals the exact nature of the influencing factors that have resulted in the worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of each operation dimension will be evaluated from a comparative lens using a pre-pandemic period as a baseline, comparing the state of affairs before COVID-19 that served as a norm and benchmark against the present pandemic period. These arrays will provide a wealth of knowledge on the moving targets of 4 essential elements of the business and the underlying variances, which can serve as a guide to managers on the adjustments that need to be made in the core operations that comprise loan portfolio management, workforce productivity, and financial strength – a holistic picture of the degree of mutual interdependence of these elements in the face of shock events. Hence, the creators of this multivariate analytical approach can be said to provide a comprehensive interpretation of the whole transition journey that the pandemic led many credit unions through.

3.2 Setting and Participants

To produce significant results in this causal-comparative study, it is advised to interview at least 45 people, divided among members, staff, and management from each credit union under investigation. The research design comprises a set questionnaire for 45 participants divided into three categories: staff, management, and membership. The study intends to collect primary data by filling in One hundred eighty structured questionnaires, which is the number determined with forty-five allocations for each of the four large credit unions in St. Vincent and Grenadines. Further, these forty-five questionnaires per credit union will be divided equally among three participant categories: fifteen for front-line staff, fifteen for management personnel, and fifteen for credit union members. This strategy considers the views of all the essential divergent stakeholder groups because they are directly involved in the operations being integrated and affected.

3.3 Data Sources/Instruments

The measure of the study will be structured, closed-ended questionnaires, which encompasses a powerful research method for the quantitative design. These questions will be asked to the same subgroups of participants (staff team, managers, and members) in all credit union offices. In this way, the resulting data can be compared to check the relevancy and reliability of the responses. This process can be called analysis and assessment.

Any deviation in the answers will highlight specific anomalies at the time and experienced uniquely by that group. This is also a reliability assurance. Abnormalities in quantitative design highlight the base nature of the general trend under observation. 

Also, consideration of the researcher as an instrument is essential to this study. This includes concerns about research subjectivity. Any descriptive account added to this study must contain the recognition that the researcher has their perspective that underlines and influences the investigation. The research must focus on presenting their facts in an impartial, balanced, and fair way. Typically, this applies to qualitative studies. 

3.4 Data Collection Techniques

As this is a quantitative study, a numerical quantity will be assigned to each question on the structured, close-ended questionnaire. The numbers will be subjected to statistical analysis. These inferential statistics will obtain conclusions that can be applied to future scenarios. 

3.5 Sampling Techniques

The sampling method used for this study was non-probability sampling. To further explain, the sample group was drawn from precise criteria of people: members, staff, and management belonging to the Kingstown Co-operative-operative Credit Union

Due to the nature of the quantitative design, the sample must be large enough to generate significant results. Therefore, the questionnaires across KCCU, given to 15 participants from three sectors- staff, management, and members, are large enough to collect reliable results. 

3.6 Pretest or pilot study

A preliminary examination of the survey and interview questions will be utilized for the research before distributing the study. This test will be conducted with a limited sample of the target population to verify the absence of any errors.

3.7 Definitions of key terms, concepts, and variables

The following is a list of definitions specific to this study.

• Causal-Comparative Research: Causal-comparative research is a research methodology that reveals a cause-and-effect relationship between independent and dependent variables. 
• COVID-19: Corona-virus infection (COVID-19) is a life-threatening, highly contagious illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Symptoms vary from slight respiratory disease to severe ailments like the inability to breathe. Hospitalization and specialized treatment are required. COVID-19 was declared an international emergency from January 2020 to May 2023.
• Dependent Variable: A dependent variable is a statistical component affected by the independent variable. A dependent variable is subject to change. 
• Economic Flexibility: Flexible economies readily adopt policies that promote change and adaptability. 
• Economic Resilience: These are a nation’s preparedness measures that foresee, endure, and recover from crises, downturns, or disasters.  
• Financial Positions: Financial positions are the recorded up-to-date balances of an organization’s liability, resources/capital, and equity. This information is on the balance sheet of a financial statement. 
• Independent Variables: An independent variable is a cause that precipitates the effect of the dependent variable. An independent variable is not subject to change.
• Loan Default Rate: A loan default rate is the amount of unpaid loans a borrower has failed to pay the lender. It is also referred to as a penalty rate and is usually written off as bad debt and recorded as a poor credit score. The penalty amounts to increased interest on the payments due to the lender.
• Personnel/ Employee Productivity: Personnel productivity is a measurable quantity of how effectively a team member can convert their time into profitable work. 
• Service Delivery: Service delivery is the obligation to a customer, member, or client from an organization to meet their request in exchange for money.

3.8 Data analysis and interpretation

These details will be subject to statistical processing and analysis utilizing notable statistics software; due to this, the data will be thoroughly examined. A comparative study will be performed on the datasets to plot patterns and exceptions. Bar graphs, pie charts, and tables will be used to visualize the findings. They will be presented in an organized and easy manner. The interpretation stage will envisage differentiating obtained results by putting them into context to have answers to the research questions and understand the ongoing trends and the discovered discrepancies. Overall, this strategy will lead to a meticulous and responsible research study that can enhance knowledge of the study outcomes.

3.9 Ethical considerations

Participants must be protected throughout this study. Human participants warrant ethical consideration as they possess emotions, thought, and reasoning faculties. Therefore, they may be subject to distress (psychological or physical) at any time of the study. 

Their overall psychological and physical well-being must be considered and gauged. Applying ethical concerns is relevant at all stages of the research procedure- planning, conducting, and evaluating research. It is best to keep the participant informed at all stages of the study. 

Ensuring the participants remain free from harm is a general rule of thumb during the research process. Any risk or exposure to physical or psychological damage should not exceed the normal risks faced during day-to-day living.  

Psychological harm includes damage to self-esteem, humiliation, or increased stress from the study. If unavoidable and minor discomfort occurs, the participants must be notified, and debriefing or counseling should follow. 

Time must be taken to inform participants of the nature of the study. Emphasize that the participant voluntarily engages in the research and can leave whenever desired.

It should be explicitly stated that confidentiality will always be maintained and privacy well protected. Ethical consideration must reflect the following:

Confidentiality

Confidentiality also falls under the category of the right to privacy. How individuals react, respond, or conduct themselves during the study must never be openly shared. The participant’s privacy and individuality must be secured from general knowledge. The integrity and esteem of the participant must remain at the forefront of the researcher’s mind.

Informed consent

When participants are intentionally recruited for a study, they must be fully informed about the goal and outcomes of the study. Then, they must be presented with the choice to continue or discontinue as a participant. All participation is incontrovertibly voluntary.

Occasionally, an issue can arise where a participant may be too informed about the study’s intent. This could alter the behavior and, therefore, the validity of the study’s results. An acceptable compromise is to give participants a general idea about the overall goals of the study.

Provision of debriefing, counseling, and additional information

The study must provide security, counseling, and debriefing. The study’s designers must provide counseling and debriefing if the participant was subjected to unanticipated distress. 

3.10 Conclusion

This study aims to understand the impact of COVID-19 on four operational features of the four prominent credit unions in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The research design used will be a quantitative, causal-comparative methodology. The primary instruments are structured, closed-ended questionnaires for the four credit unions’ members, staff, and management. Primary and secondary sources also inform readers about credit unions’ context and functioning. 

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Vuong, B. A. (2023, September 19). Credit Union members want three things during the COVID-19 crisis. Gallup.com. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/308306/credit-union-members-things-during-covid-crisis.aspx

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