ABERDEEN, Scotland–Plans to set up a new credit union for the Scottish farming sector have gotten stuck in the barn due to financial regulations in the United Kingdom. For the past two years the Scottish Agriculture Organization Soceity has been working with the University of Aberdeen on what it said would be a new “financial intermediary” to offer farmers access to “affordable, ethical financial products.” The most likely model, according to backers, would be a credit union.
But that plan has run into a wall at the U.K.’s regulator, which has suggested that a “strict” FOM such as that for farmers will not work due to regulations currently in place.