Dennis Cutter doesnt look like a rock star, but he knows how it feels to stand in front of thousands of screaming fans.


Cutter, president and CEO of Numerica Credit Union here and chairman emeritus of the Madison, Wis.-based World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), has helped develop a program in the Philippines that assists credit unions in becoming safer places for members to save and borrow money. The program also has provided educational and financial assistance to thousands of Philippine women who operate small businesses and are their families sole providers.


While Americans take for granted the ability to borrow and save money at sound financial institutions, the turnaround in the Philippine credit unions being helped by WOCCU is so great that the people there hold large rallies and parades celebrating the financial strength and freedom that the reforms have brought, he says.


The credit-union movement feels that we need to do some payback, says Cutter, who has headed Numerica since 1971. We need to take the success weve had (in developed countries) and provide resourceshuman and economicto other countries.


WOCCU is an organization of 39,000 credit unions in 87 countries. Through a program it began in 1987, it helps provide people in developing countries, such as the Philippines, Guatemala, and Kenya, with affordable financial services. That program now encompasses 4 four million credit-union members in 19 countries. Together, the credit unions in the councils program have $1.5 trillion in savings and $1.4 trillion in loans, Cutter says. The participants also have built more confidence and better standards of living, asserts Cutter, who headed the Philippine effort until recently.


If you dont have access to affordable financial services, youre not empowered at all, he says.


In many poor countries, banks and credit unions arent managed well, Cutter says. In the Philippines, for example, a 1998 WOCCU examination of 50 credit unions showed that the average loan-delinquency rate was 98 percent, compared with the maximum acceptable delinquency rate here of 1 percent, he says. Instead of addressing a late payment within a week or two after a loan becomes delinquent, as is typical in the U.S, most financial institutions studied there waited until the end of the loan period, perhaps 36 months or more, before holding the borrower accountable. The council also found that credit unions relied heavily on external capital from the government and nongovernmental organizations.


The feeling was, This is government money, so we dont have to pay it back, Cutter says. Our goal was to eliminate external capital.


The 1998 examination was conducted in the Davao region of the Philippines with the help of a $3.5 million grant from The U.S. Agency for International Development. From the 50 credit unions studied, the council chose 20 to take part in its program based on their willingness and need to improve practices.


In five years, the participating credit unions have cut their combined average delinquency rate to 7 percent, and the council accomplished its goal of ridding those credit unions of external capital, Cutter says. The council says membership in the 20 credit unions increased 320 percent, to about 218,000, and voluntary savings deposits grew 280 percent to $13 million.


The credit unions now are striving to reach certain standards to receive whats called a Finance Organizations Achieving Certified Credit Union Standards (FOCCUS) certification, Cutter says. Through branding on buildings, billboards, and other promotional materials, the certification shows current and potential members that credit unions are meeting international financial standards. Earning that certification, or advancing through its three levels, prompts lively community celebrations, Cutter says.


They have huge productions when they get the brand, he says, describing large talent shows and parades. Its like the Oscars.


Pairing credit with education


Together with Freedom from Hunger, a nonprofit organization that teaches people in developing countries self-sustainability skills, the council also offers a program that combines credit and life skills.


Its called Savings and Credit with Education, or SCWE, which is also the name given to the groups of 25 women who participate. The women gatheron patios, in sheds, or even on the banks of rivers where water buffalo wadeand learn skills, such as in parenting, nutrition, and health, Cutter says. They talk about breast feeding, illness, and how best to operate their small businesses, through which most families in the Philippines sustain themselves, he says.


As Cutter describes them, though, tiny might be a better word to describe those businesses. The women run laundry services, makeshift convenience stores, breakfast stands, and other such operationsusually in spaces of less than 100 square feet, he says.


Once a group of 25 women is formed and shows a commitment to the program, it can begin borrowing from a WOCCU-affiliated credit union. Although its the group that borrows a lump sum, the money is filtered to the individual women, who use it to create, grow, or promote their businesses, Cutter says. Even after building their independence and proving that their businesses can survive without the group, the women usually continue to participate in the SCWEs.


The ladies say that what they want more of is education, he says. They want to know how they can help their families.


As of last October, about 25,500 women were participating in the SCWE program, Cutter says. About 2,650 of them had only contributed savings, but the rest had borrowed money, with the average loan per individual being $58. That seemingly small amount of money has allowed many of their businesses to flourish, and some have done so well that theyve hired an employee or built small homes for their families, he says.


There is zero delinquency in the SCWE program because the women feel responsible to the group, Cutter says. For group members to come to the life-skills meetings without a loan paymentand face the other memberswould be unthinkable, he says.


In most cases, the women provide their familys only source of income, Cutter says. Men arent allowed into the SCWE groups.


Quite honestly, most of the women do all of the work, Cutter says.


In the beginning, many of the men were suspicious of the SCWE program, he says.


After all, the women were being educated, Cutter says. They were being taught, Dont let your husband beat you up.


Now that the men have seen the programs benefits, theyre more supportive, he says.


Staying grounded


In Numericas headquarters on Havana Street, Cutter talks excitedly about the program and its impact on him over the last several years. Souvenirs from the Philippines dot his office, including a small, grasshopper-topped can which the children there use as a sort of piggy bank. A dozen awards and plaques line a bookshelf facing his desk, and a handful more sit on the floor awaiting a permanent display place.


Cutter shuffles through photos of Philippine women cheering in large assembly halls, celebrating the successes theyve achieved in large part through their credit unions newfound stability. Cutter says that he and his wife, Shelby, have canceled a trip to the Philippines theyd planned for June because of recent violence in the Davao region, including a bombing earlier this month that killed 21 people at the Davao airport. He will travel to Australia this summer, though, to accept the councils 2003 Distinguished Service Award.


Cutter was a delegate to the council between 1988 and 2002 when he was a member of the executive committee of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA). He was chairman of WOCCU from 1999 until last June, when he retired from both the council and the CUNA.


In addition to his work in the Philippines, Cutter is credited for establishing a credit-union rating agency in Guatemala. Similar to the goals of FOCCUS, the agency has set standards of practice and for credit unions to follow to receive certification that shows they are sound institutions. Cutter has been Numericas president and CEO since 1971.


Cutter says his experiences abroad refresh his commitment to Numericas mission, and he doesnt underestimate the importance of WOCCUs role in developing countries.


Were exporting democracy, he says. A credit union is about democracy, and clearly, in some countries, having a credit union is not something the government wants.


The concept of a credit union, which pools members money for the good of all and gives members a say in operations and governance, still is a novel idea in some parts of the world, he says. Cutter still seems enthralled with the effect that opportunity can haveand the power that financial freedom gives people.


These programs keep me grounded in the philosophy of what credit unions are all about, and thats people helping people, he says.