About Us

"About our Credit Union"

The Credit Union “Mission Statement”

The Mission of the Credit Union is to promote the financial well being of its members. To achieve this purpose the Credit Union is committed to providing a broad range of innovative financial products supported by the excellent service of a dedicated, well-trained staff. These programs will be administered in accordance with sound management practices to maintain the financial strength of the Credit union. The Board of Directors, Management and Staff of the Credit Union hereby affirm that the efforts of the Credit Union will be consistently and professionally dedicated to the accomplishment of this mission.

The Credit Union Story

The modern Credit Union movement traces its origins to Germany and to Friedrich Willhelm Raiffeisen, the Mayor of a small town in southern Germany, who in 1849 formed societies, which later evolved in to Credit Unions. The purposes of these Credit Unions was to enable people to help themselves in relieving debt and poverty.

A Credit Union is a democratic, financial co-operative owned and controlled by its own members. Each Credit Union is run only to benefit its members, all of whom have something in common - the common bond.

The Credit Union movement was introduced into Ireland in 1958 by Nora Herilhy with the support of a number of other dedicated pioneers.

Since then, the Credit Union philosophy of mutual self-help has proved very popular, and there are now over 530 Credit Unions affiliated to the Irish league of Credit Unions throughout the country.

In Ireland over two million members have recognized the value of credit unions, and have savings approaching several billion euro with their credit unions. There are thousands employed in the sector and many more thousands are volunteers involved in the movement.

History of St Michaels Credit Union

St Michaels Credit Union Ltd is a financial co-operative owned and controlled by it’s members. Credit Unions serve the financial needs of the community on a not for profit basis. The credit union philosophy is based on the idea of the community pooling their savings together to create a fund from which members can borrow when the need arises at very favourable rates.

Landmarks in the history of St Michaels Credit Union Ltd

• 1963
  On March 15th 1963, the Credit Union opened it’s doors at Ballinure with a membership of 14 and an intake of £4. The first Board of Directors consisted of George Thompson, Chairman Con Cambridge, Hon Sec. Julianne Hayes, Margaret Thompson, Con Collins, Tim Healy and Brendan Raleigh.
• 1972
  Manager Eileen Fitzgerald appointed in June 1972.
• 1972
  New office opened at Skehard Road in May 1972.
• 1973
  The big event of 1973 was the announcement by Cork Corporation in August of their proposed land at the eastern end of the parish. This posed a great challenge and the Credit Union responded by holding a special director’s meeting attended by the field officer (ILCU) to discuss how best it could serve the new development.
• 1982
  Appointment of second full time employee, Joan Hyde.
• 1987
  Third full time employee, Avril Dowling, is appointed.
• 1985
  Shares exceeded £1 million for the first time.
• 1996
  Present office in Skehard Road opened it’s doors for the first time.
• 1986
  Loans exceeded £1 million for the first time.
• 1987
  A computer committee was formed and in 1987, computerisation was introduced.
• 2006
  Sub office in Mahon Point opened it’s doors on the 27 March 2006
• 2007
  The loan book at St. Michaels Credit Union exceeds €30m in 2007

Further Reading

Download and read an extract from our Annual Report, 2003 for more about St Michaels Credit Union Ltd:

Download Extract of Annual Report 2003 (369.9kb)

We hope you find useful information on this site.  If you have a particular question, that is not answered here, e-mail us and we will do our best to help you.

E-mail:  stmichaelscu@eircom.net or mp@stmichaelscu.ie

Telephone:  021/ 435 7771 or 021/ 461 4884