New York City's first student-run bank opens on Tuesday at the Fordham Leadership Academy, which is helping teenager students learn how to save money.

Students at the school will be able to open saving accounts. All the tellers are also students, local media reported, adding that the goal is to teach good financial habits to the kids working there and the ones with accounts.

"It gives our kids the opportunity to see something different that normally wouldn't have come in to their lives, especially at a high school level," said Richard Bost, principal of Fordham Leadership Academy.

"What's even more important is it spreads through the whole school and all the other schools on the campus, so that all the kids see the opportunities, not only in terms of jobs, but also more importantly in terms of financial planning and investment and saving money," Bost noted.

The bank is a branch of North Fork Bank, said the report.

(Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2007)