Most Irish retailers have no plans to offer financial services at their stores.

However, Dunnes Stores is testing an insurance initiative in Co Cork which, if it proves successful, may mean the company introduces financial services on a wider scale throughout the Republic.

The initiative involves providing insurance products to Dunnes Stores Value Club members through the post.

It is being undertaken in association with Irish Life, which underwrites the life assurance product. Its sister company First Call Direct provides motor and home insurance products as part of the initiative.

Tesco Ireland says it currently has no plans to offer financial services at its stores, although this may change in the future.

A spokeswoman said if financial services were offered they were unlikely to be on the same scale as the British experience.

Mr Eamonn Quinn, marketing manager with Superquinn, says the company has no immediate plans to offer financial services.

He maintained the banking sector was extremely competitive and that any supermarket attempting to enter the market would face an uphill struggle.

A spokesman for Marks & Spencer Ireland says the company has no plans to introduce banking services here.

Irish retailers identified differences between the financial sectors in Britain and the Republic as the main reason why supermarket banking was unlikely to be introduced here.

The strength of the credit union movement, for instance, gives people here an alternative to banks which is not available on the same scale in Britain.