The National AI Strategy sets out how Ireland can be an international leader in using AI to benefit our economy and society, through a people-centred, ethical approach to its development, adoption and use.

This Strategy sets out how Ireland can be an international leader in using AI to benefit our economy and society, through a people-centred, ethical approach to its development, adoption and use. 
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• AI - Here for Good: National AI Strategy - Executive Summary
• AI - Here for Good: National AI Strategy

Sign post to CompliReg blog on speech by Minister of Finance Paschal Donohoe to Blockchain Ireland audience yesterday (24 May 2021), covering fintech, payments, blockchain and crypto.

Read the full speech at the link above.

Some extracts that caught our eye:

• "We have a track record in this country for building globally recognised #payment companies and innovative financial services businesses.
• ​The necessity to transact a payment online forced many to implicitly “trust” in the process, without considering who the company offering such services is or what consumer protection safeguards are in place if something goes wrong.
• #Blockchain is also enabling innovative approaches to educational credentialing in the Irish banking sector.
• Equally, I recognise that the blockchain technology that underpins these [#crypto] currencies is being a catalyst for innovation in the financial services sector, particularly payments and capital markets.
• As Minister for Finance, I’m conscious that investing in #cryptocurrencies continues to involve risks and that there must be adequate regulation to protect consumers in this regard.

• ... there are 12 educational institutions across Ireland that are supporting and researching blockchain, whether that is in the form of ongoing research, study programmes or partnerships with other companies."

Continue reading here - CompliReg blog ​

Q1: Tell me about your background 
Born and bred in Portlaoise, I am an Executive Director at Square and responsible for leading our European and International commercial operations, payments, and industry relations team. I joined Square in November 2019 and have over 20 years experience in financial services and payments, I spent six and a half of these as the General Manager of Ireland at Mastercard, prior to joining Square. 

Q2: Tell me about the beta announcement into Ireland - what products and services will this include? What business-sectors are you targeting?
We have publicly announced the launch of our Early Access Programme which brings Square’s suite of business tools to Irish businesses of all sizes. This marks the first time Square is available to Irish merchants, introducing our full ecosystem of products and services to offer all the tools that sellers need to start, run, grow and adapt.
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Space in Square’s Early Access Programme is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested businesses across Ireland should visit squareup.com/IrelandEAP to learn more and secure their spot. Merchants who enroll in the Early Access Programme can get started with Square products in just days, with no long-term contracts or start-up fees, and qualify for free Square hardware.

The goal is to have as diverse a group of businesses as possible to make sure we have holistic and well-rounded feedback that will enable us to confidently and successfully launch our products for general availability in Ireland later in 2021. 

Q3: How long does Square plan to be in beta-phase for? When can we expect a full launch?
The plan is to offer our products for general availability in Ireland later in 2021 - hopefully soon, depending on a successful Early Access Programme.

Q4: How will Square’s presence and ecosystem impact Ireland’s business landscape?
Covid-19 has had a significant impact on small businesses and we think now is the right time to launch in Ireland with a product suite that will help them to recover faster. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve taken steps to support our sellers through free advice issued on our customer dashboard and by making available services designed to help them adapt to the changing market demands. We want to bring these benefits to Irish businesses and understand more about how the pandemic is impacting Irish businesses, so we know how best to support them.
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​Q5: Why have you chosen Ireland as your latest market launch?
We know that Ireland has a very entrepreneurial small business landscape, in 2018, SMEs generated over 46% of total turnover in the Irish business economy, while micro accounted for 91.9% of all enterprises. By launching our ecosystem of products in Ireland, Square can help meet demands and support businesses to grow and adapt. We also have our European HQ here in Dublin which made expanding here a natural choice for us. 

Q6: What makes Square different to its competitors?
There are multiple payment providers out there - but no other company offers what Square does. We’re the only comprehensive solution of our kind when you consider omnichannel selling across in-store and online, which is more important than ever due to the impact of the pandemic. Square has a suite of products that fully integrate to save businesses time and offer solutions to a multitude of problems, all in one place.

​Q7: How would you describe the culture, diversity, inclusiveness and ethos of Square.  Is it a competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting talent?
Lots of people talk about values and when I joined Square, I was genuinely looking for a company that had a strong ethos for why they existed and I don’t think there’s a more authentic brand when it comes to values and belief systems, particularly when it comes to the economic empowerment of businesses. This is reflected in the sheer diversity of talent at Square and the attitude we collectively hold of wanting to learn and having both the skill and the will to work with our sellers in the best way we can. 

When it comes to recruiting talent we do see this as a competitive advantage. We’re hiring all the time and currently have around 20 jobs live on our website. These include business development, customer success, finance, marketing, and software engineering, so across almost all functions here in Ireland. 

​Q8: At Fintech Ireland, we are all about the Fintech ecosystem.  Do you think that there will be opportunities to partner/collaborate with young, hungry and fast growing Irish fintech?
​At the moment we are laser-focused on ensuring that we have a successful beta phase and Early Access Programme, however the possibilities are endless when looking to the future.

Q9: We spoke about your background earlier, what are three bullet points of advice you’d give to your younger self (and budding fintech entrepreneurs out there?) 
The three bullet points I would give myself are:

• Authenticity is underrated: Doing something you enjoy for a living where you can stay true to yourself, and your own value system is probably more important than anything else 
• Focus on having a Growth Mindset: Openness to learning, making mistakes and stepping out of your comfort zone will pay dividends
• Calmness, patience and embracing problems trump anger, frustration and stress on most occasions!

​Q10: When Square invested $50mn in bitcoin, you said was the purpose was driven by ‘economic empowerment’. What does Square see as the economy of the future and what role do you expect it to play/
Our purpose of ‘economic empowerment’ is what we stand for, it’s what inspires us and connects us across business units, teams, offices and drives our mission. Over the course of Square’s history and its future, we’ll have many missions and each mission will eventually end. But each mission serves a greater ending purpose, which is to empower people to participate in the economy.  Read more on this point at  https://squareup.com/us/en/press/2020-bitcoin-investment

Wednesday 7th April 2021: EML Payments (Brisbane Australia) has acquired 100% of the Irish fintech, Sentenial Limited, and all its subsidiaries, including the open banking arm, Nuapay in a $83.1m deal.  EML’s company’s shares rose by 9% to AUS$5.60 following the announcement.
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The news follows on from EML’s acquisition of two other Irish fintech - Prepaid Financial Services Limited 12 months ago, which was bought for $202.15m in March 2020 and PerfectCard, in which it then acquired a majority stake in a deal worth more than €6m in October 2018.

More at https://twitter.com/FinTechIreland/status/1379753658770948100?s=20
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/kildare-based-sentenial-acquired-by-eml-in-deal-worth-up-to-110m-1.4530886

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Wednesday 7th April 2021: Irish fintech founded @CurrencyFair is to merge with Australian company Assembly Payments following a strategic investment from Standard Chartered. No financial details related to the transaction have been disclosed.  The merged company plans to grow headcount to over 450 people over the next four years.

More at https://twitter.com/FinTechIreland/status/1379747564166201347?s=20
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/currencyfair-to-merge-following-standard-chartered-investment-1.4530909

Welcome Boku to the regulated fintech family of e-money, payment institutions and account information service providers.

​Boku Network Services IE Limited, a US payments firm listed in London, obtained a payments authorisation for service # 5 (i.e. 5. Issuing of payment instruments and/or acquiring of payment transactions) from the Central Bank of Ireland on 25 March 2021 to support its European business and aid further product expansion. The company develops mobile payment solutions that connect merchants and mobile operators for billing and identity verification.  By our tally that makes 20 x Authorised Payments Institutions (the Central Bank records 21, but one of those firms is marked as 'withdrawn' as at 20 Feb 2020); 3 x Account Information Services Providers (i.e. standalone AISP registration. NB 2 x Payments and 2 x emoney firms have this as part of their licence) and 17 x Electronic Money Institutions.  This data as of 8 April 2021 as per records showing on the CBI website.   

If you are looking to get authorised or registered with the Central Bank of Ireland, take a look at the slides and video from our recent co-hosted event with CompliReg at https://complireg.com/authorisations.html