An Irishman, Mr Gerry Foley, from Rush, Co Dublin, has this weekend been elected chairman of the board of the World Council of Credit Unions, the international organisation of credit unions and similar financial institutions.

It is only the second time an Irishman will have held the position.

Mr Foley, a Midland Health Board employee and president of the Republic of Ireland Public Health Services, is a founder member of Rush Credit Union and a former president of the Irish League of Credit Unions.

Mr Foley says his aim for the year at the head of the World Council will be to "make sure that in areas of the world where there are no credit unions to bring the credit union message to people who don't have access to affordable credit".

Currently more than 85 countries and 105 million people come under the umbrella of the World Council of Credit Unions, according to the international conference of credit union leaders in Killarney, Co Kerry, this weekend.

The conference was attended by 700 delegates from 25 countries.

Ireland has the fourth-largest credit union movement in the world.

With 2.2 million members and 534 branches North and South - there are 432 credit unions in the Republic and two million members - credit unions have the highest penetration of any financial institution on the island, Mr Jim McMahon, president of the league said.

There are now 2,000 full-time and part-time employees in credit unions in Ireland.

However, the backbone is still the 16,000 volunteers - the boards of directors are all voluntary - which support the credit union movement, he said.

"So far there are enough volunteers - but everybody keeps worrying. In the modern world, people seem to have less and less time," Mr McMahon said. Credit unions continue to outperform other financial institutions in terms of trust and satisfaction.

However, their greatest challenge now is finding a solution to the problem of technology.

An information system which would have standardised technology for credit unions, the so-called ISIS project, had cost the movement £27 million (#34.3 million). At the moment the league was investigating alternative systems, Mr McMahon said.

One problem is that there are 28 different companies supplying systems for credit unions - but these systems are only for in-house work.

The movement needs a centralised computer system particularly given government plans for a national payment strategy electronically, Mr McMahon added.

"If credit unions don't have something in place they will lose out massively.

"If electronic payment isn't being channelled to credit unions, I would worry about it," he said.

The movement has faced constant lobbying from the banks and other institutions. But so far credit unions have managed to fight off attempts to bring them under banking directives and the Consumer Credit Act.