Laois Chamber Alliance CEO Jackie Carroll caught up with Belinda Gyves of People First Credit Union recently.
Bellinda works as a Business Development Executive and she explains what the Credit Union is all about.
Tell us about your business in one sentence!
People First Credit Union is a member-owned, not for profit financial cooperative , providing a range of financial services and products to its members located across Laois and Athy.
What inspired you to start this business?
The Credit Union movement within Ireland is stronger than ever. Currently there are over 400 Credit Union’s located in ROI and another 100 in Northern Ireland.
In 1969, Fr William O’Mahoney and twelve others founded Portlaoise Credit Union. Initially, Portlaoise Credit Union operated from Gowings Shop on Main Street. A few years later, it moved to an office in Odlums Mills and then purchased its own office on the New Road. Today, our main office is now located on James Fintan Lalor Avenue, Portlaoise.
What’s the story behind your business name?
People First Credit Union Limited (“PFCU”) was formed out of the merger of Portlaoise Credit Union and Abbeyleix Credit Union in September 2015. PCFU subsequently merged with Athy Credit Union in January 2017.
People First Credit Union now operates from four branches. We are in Abbeyleix, Athy, Portlaoise and Stradbally. We have 44 staff members and over 40,000 members.
What sets your business apart from the competition?
What sets us apart from other financial institution is that we provide exceptional face to face counter service and can take pride that our member’s are not directed to a machine to conduct their business on entering any of our branches.
PFCU has a friendly approach to modern finance. Although we are a financial institution, we combine all the traditional friendliness of a Credit Union with the modern banking facilities you demand.
PFCU is not-for-profit, so any surplus is channelled into providing members with better products and services, loan rebates, or dividends.
We also support our local community flourish through sponsorship initiatives that support schools, organisations, and clubs in your area.
What’s the most unique or surprising service or product you offer?
People may think we just offer savings and loans. At PFCU we provide an array of financial services and products, from car, pet and home insurance to financial planning services. We also offer mortgages, and there are lots of reasons you should consider taking out a mortgage with your local Credit Union.
What is different and compelling about what your mortgage offer?
We do not charge arrangement fees, do not penalize for early or lump- sum repayments. Interest is charged on a reducing balance. From 2026 PFCU will provide mortgages to members who are doing self- builds.
If you want to chat about taking out a mortgage, contact PFCU and ask to speak to our Mortgage Advisors, Nicola Fitzpatrick and Amy Carolan.
Can you highlight some of the key achievements of you business?
2025 was another busy year for our Credit Union, we approved over 4,651 loans. Issued a total loan value of €24,127,844.
Our gross loan book on the 30th of Sept was €48,705,436, an increase of 7.33% for year end 23/24. 38.8% of loans we approved in 2025 where for Car Loans, followed closely by Personal Loans coming in at 33.3%.
Smaller loans of between €1K- €5K are extremely popular. When our members need quick and easy finance they come to their local Credit Union. This time of the year we are busy with Christmas loans.
While online and app applications continue to be popular, our members have shown that they still want to meet us and 42% of our overall applications were held in our branches.
What are some of the biggest challenges your business has faced?
One of the biggest challenges our Credit Union faces is encouraging new volunteers to sit onto the Board of Directors and on various committees across the Credit Union.
Credit unions are managed by a mixture of volunteers and paid staff.
Directors are volunteers. Many committees can contain volunteers who are not directors but are happy to give some of their time to serve their community.
It can also be a pathway to being nominated for Board membership. There are also educational and skill enhancement opportunities for volunteers.
The criteria for accepting volunteers are:
They are financially sound, honest, ethical and act with integrity.
They must be competent and capable, including being able to give the necessary time commitment.
Without our volunteers we do not have a Credit Union. If you are interested in finding out more on how you can help by volunteering contact People First today by emailing info@peoplefirstcu.ie
For any business considering locating in Laois, what would you say are the best things about being located here?
People First Credit Union is centrally located in the heart of Laois, with branches in Portlaoise, Abbeyleix and Stradbally.
The best things about locating a business in Laois are its central location and excellent transport links, a skilled and growing workforce, and a high quality of life with a lower cost of living compared to urban centers.
This combination of connectivity, talent, and a desirable work-life balance makes Laois an ideal location for business growth.
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