NATCCO, together with the Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU), aims to develop primary coops into world-class institutions by making them the best in microfinance services in their communities.

So our Training and Consultancy Department, offers ACCESS which stands for “A1 Competitive Choice for Excellence in Service and Soundness”.

ACCESS Branding will arm your cooperative with the tools needed to build the organization-wide quality assurance strategy.  The aim is the sustainability of your cooperative – or more specifically a better bottom line.

To monitor viability, the average cooperative is required by the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) to submit its yearly COOP PESOS rating.  Although the COOP PESOS rating covers nine different aspects of a cooperative’s operations, the total number of indicators or ratios is only 17.

But ACCESS Branding goes further.  The ACCU developed the Balanced Scorecard architecture comprising 86 indicators on four aspects of operations – finance, learning and growth, customer-member processes and internal business processes.

Thus, the requirements for a cooperative to get ACCESS Certification is clearly more stringent.  ACCESS indicators more accurately reflect the financial state or health of a cooperative.

In human terms, the blood pressure, pulse rate and blood count of a person are good indicators of a person’s health.  But they may be quite superficial.  So to get a really accurate picture of one’s health, it would be best to undergo other tests like an Electro Cardiogram, 2D Echo, chest X-rays, LDL, HDL, creatinine levels, blood sugar and cholesterol counts.

With this information a doctor has a better picture of a person’s condition, and can then confidently decide what treatments to apply.

In business terms, ACCESS requires coops to use the same financial information they have always had and use it to create ratios that will identify which areas in their operations need attention, and improve their operations and services.  The result is efficient services and higher profits.

One ratio, for instance is the standard measurement for liquidity: liquid investments plus liquid assets minus short-term payables divided by savings deposits and time deposit accounts.  ACCESS requires this figure to be above 15%.

Another ratio is Rates on Return on Cost which is the Amount available for Interest on Share Capital divided by average share capital.

While COOP PESO rating is self-rated by the cooperative concerned, ACCESS auditing is done by representatives from NATCCO and ACCU.

ACCESS Branding also has some tangible, non-monetary requirements that a cooperative needs like developing a website that is frequently updated, for instance; or Yearly Growth in Membership with a set goal of 12%.  Growth in Assets should exceed the period’s inflation rate by up to 10% higher.  

Loyalty Incentives are also to be given to long-time customers.  For coop employees, 
the coop should come up with a Comprehensive Operations Manual detailing all procedures ensuring consistency in the delivery of services and decision-making.  

Nothing is left to imagination in the management and procedures of an ACCESS-Branded cooperative.  Virtually every step in all processes is written down and standardized.

ACCESS Branding is a challenge but the rewards and prestige are worth the effort.

ACCESS Branding starts with a two-day orientation / seminar.