The Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) will today begin a campaign to expand its network among schools.
League chief executive Liam O'Dwyer said the campaign would coincide with International Credit Union Day today, and that the ILCU would like to see a "sub-branch" in every school in the State.
About 200 primary and secondary schools have sub-credit union branches.
"We see it as an important way of teaching young people the value of money, of saving and of social capital. Credit unions are run by the community by volunteers for the community," he said.
Recently, he added, the value of saving and volunteering was increasingly easy to lose sight of, especially among the young. The banks, he said, "put pressure on young people to take out loans, pushing easy credit, or debt, at them".