By Anca Voinea
Irish credit unions have once again topped a survey of the country’s most reputable organisations.
The Ireland RepTrak® study has placed the sector top of its rankings for two consecutive years, 2023 and 2024. This year it obtained an overall score of 84.2, ranking first in four out of the survey’s seven key drivers of reputation – citizenship, conduct, products & services, and workplace.
Credit unions were the only organisation to attain an excellent score of over 80 this year. They also took first place in trust to do the right thing, fair in the way it does business, ethical, ppen & transparent and other reputation metrics.
Released every year by The Reputations Agency, the study is based on the perceptions of over 5,000 members of the public. It measures the level of trust, respect, admiration and esteem the public has for 100 of the largest, most familiar and most important organisations in Ireland, alongside 100 other reputation, brand, purpose and ESG indicators.
“Over the last 15 years, we’ve learned a good deal about the power of reputation and how to harness this for client transformation and growth, grounded in world-class measurement and strategy,” said Niamh Boyle, CEO of the Reputations Agency. “We have closely studied the exemplars as they have a very special reputational DNA – they contribute to society, display great conduct in the way they run their businesses, offer the highest quality products valued by their customers and have strong leadership teams, well organised for success.”
“Topping Ireland RepTrak for the second year in a row is a significant achievement for the credit union sector,” said David Malone, CEO of the Irish League of Credit Unions. “It is a recognition of the role that we play in communities across Ireland and the trust and esteem in which people hold credit unions. We are delighted with the results, which position us as a leader among the most prominent organisations and household names in Ireland. This recognition proves to us that our constant focus on improving both the face-to-face and in-branch experience and our digital and online engagements is delivering.
“In more than 400 locations across the country, our 4,000 staff members, supported by more than 3,000 volunteer directors, are the cornerstone of our organisation. They help build emotional connection and in turn our reputation amongst members every day through our products and services. We are immensely proud of the work they do every day.”
The study took place between 2 January and 11 March. Other organisations in the top five were Lidl, Boots, AnPost and Toyota.
