Credit unions will next year begin paying a new levy to fund a scheme that will provide support for any of these organisations that require financial support or other aid to maintain their reserves.

Regulations signed into law by the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, will require individual credit unions to pay a stabilisation levy equivialent to 0.22 per cent of their total assets every year from next February.

The scheme aims to build up a fund of €30 million for this purpose over 10 years. The levy and the amount that it raises will be reviewed after three years.

To be eligible for this support, a credit union’s reserves must be between 7.5 per cent and 10 per cent of its total assets and the organisation must be viable in the Central Bank’s opinion.

Separately, the Government is providing €250 million to the Credit Union Fund for restructuring individual lenders. The scheme will provide support to credit unions that are not in a positoin to finance the process themselves.

The Commission on Credit Unions recommended both measures.