Fintech News from Ireland and around the World

Legend Trading's Irish subsidiary secures coveted CASP Authorisation from the Central Bank

10/10/2025

Legend Trading’s Irish subsidiary Legend Financial Ireland Limited becomes the second digital assets group to secure a MiCAR authorisation in Ireland

Congratulations to innovative digital assets leader, Hao Chen, Founder of Legend Trading for securing a much coveted CASP authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland on Friday 10th October 2025. Legend Financial Ireland Limited, Reference No. C535172, is authorised as a crypto-asset service provider to provide: “(c) exchange of crypto-assets for funds; (d) exchange of crypto-assets for other crypto-assets”.

The Irish company is led by CEO, Ciaran O’Hare and its Independent Chairperson is Peter Oakes.

Hao Chen, CEO of Legend Trading, commented:

“Securing the MiCA license from the Central Bank of Ireland marks a pivotal milestone in our global strategy. Ireland is renowned for its high regulatory standards and robust financial ecosystem, and we are honored to collaborate closely with its regulators under this new framework. This license not only strengthens our presence in Europe but also enhances the trust of our clients and partners worldwide. We will continue to balance compliance and innovation, expanding the boundaries of our products and services to accelerate the convergence of traditional finance and digital assets.”

Legend Trading is only the second digital assets group to secure a CASP authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland. The other digital asset group is Kraken.

Today, Fintech Ireland released Version 19 of Ireland’s Regulated Fintech Ecosystem (Payments, Crypto & Crowdfunding) to include Legend Financial Ireland Limited. That Map showcases the 89 fintech licences issued by the Central Bank of Ireland Read more HERE.

As reported in CoinTelegrapgh today: “Building on its MiCA license, Legend Trading is introducing Legend FXN — a stablecoin-to-fiat exchange and settlement platform for European banks, EMIs, PIs, and other institutions. Legend FXN will enable regulated institutions to securely and cost-effectively access stablecoin and euro liquidity. As the MiCA-authorized settlement layer, it provides instant exchange and reconciliation, establishing a compliant clearing infrastructure for Europe’s financial system.”

Again, congratulations to all involved in achieving this milestone.

The eagle-eyed among you may notice that the Central Bank’s Register of Authorised Crypto-Asset Service Providers (Article 63 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, records that Legend Financial Ireland Limited, alongside of the Kraken Irish authorised CASP entities confirms that all three are both (1) a ‘Crypto Asset Service Provider’ and (2) a ‘Virtual Asset Service Provider’.

Digital Assets will be a key theme at the Fintech Ireland Summit taking place on Thursday 27th November 2025. Make sure you attend - get your tickets HERE

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Need assistance with an emoney or payments authorisation or an account information service provider or virtual asset services provider registration application, check out Fintech Ireland and CompliReg's handy authorisation guides at https://fintechireland.com/fintech-authorisations.html.

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Monzo Bank invests a further €2million (total €8mn to date) setting up its EU base in Ireland

6/7/2025

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[First posted on Linkedin by Peter Oakes, a leading fintech and regulatory expert, on 6 July 2025]

Pursuing a bank authorisation in Ireland isn't cheap! But is the real question how valuable it will be?

Following a further investment in its Irish company of €2mn, UK Fintech bank Monzo Bank, has according to Eoin O'Hare of the Business Post, put in a total amount of €8 million since setting up its EU base here last year.

The Irish subsidiary (Mbeu Designated Activity Company), and Revolut rival, is really ramping up plans to use Dublin as its “gateway to European markets”.

TS Anil, the chief executive of Monzo, said last year that its new Irish office would act as a gateway to Europe, after it raised £340 million (€394 million) to bring its valuation to £4 billion.

The fintech’s Irish arm reported a pre-tax loss of £2.7 million for the financial year ending March 2025, according to the report. The same period saw £23,000 in total Irish income against global turnover of £1.24 billion, a 48 per cent increase, the bulk of which was reported in the UK.

Noting that Monzo’s European expansion plans were “progressing well”, the report said that it expected to “offer banking services in the European Union in the future”.

Edit - just a few days on 8 July 2025 the Financial Conduct Authority fined Monzo Bank in the UK FCA £21m for failings in financial crime controls.

"Monzo's customer base has grown rapidly, increasing almost tenfold from around 600,000 in 2018 to over 5.8 million in 2022. However, Monzo's financial crime controls failed to keep pace with its customer and product growth.

In particular, Monzo failed to design, implement and maintain adequate customer onboarding, customer risk assessment and transaction monitoring systems to mitigate the risk of financial crime. These systemic failings resulted in the FCA requiring a comprehensive, independent review of the firm's financial crime framework in August 2020."

Read this and find more money laundering typologies at Ireland's independent AML website MoneyLaundering.ie - starting here

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Ireland is now home to at least 85 regulated fintechs. Lendermarket & Rippling Payments join the Irish fintech ecosystem. New Maps Released thanks to CompliReg.com.

10/1/2025

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Need assistance with an emoney or payments authorisation or an account information service provider or virtual asset services provider registration application, check out Fintech Ireland and CompliReg's handy authorisation guides at https://fintechireland.com/fintech-authorisations.html.

Today we welcome newly authorised fintechs Lendermarket Limited and Rippling Payments Ireland Limited to the Fintech Ireland Fintech Maps. Special thanks to the CompliReg for sponsoring and supporting version 16 of the Regulated Fintech Ecosystem Map* and the version 22 of the Regulated Emoney & Payments Map.

* The Fintech Ecosystem Map is limited to authorised emoney, payments and crowdfunding firm and registered virtual asset firms

Lendermarket

Lendermarket Limited didn't appear on the public facing Central Bank of Ireland Register until 9 January 2025 despite receiving an early Christmas present from the Central Bank on 17 December 2024. Lendermarket was incorporated in Ireland back on 29 June 2016. The company is authorised to provide crowdfunding services type (i) only, being "The facilitation of granting of loans" and has elected to passport its services across the whole of the European Union.

Rippling

Rippling Payments Ireland Limited takes the honour of being the first fintech regulated in Ireland in 2025; authorised as an emoney institution on 6 January 2025. In addition to the issuing and redeeming of electronic money, Rippling Payments, which was incorporated in Ireland on 7 September 2022, is authorised to provide payment services 3(a) and 3(c) being "Execution of payment transactions, including transfers of funds on a payment account with the user’s payment service provider or with another payment service provider: a) execution of direct debits, including one-off direct debits and c) Execution of credit transfers, including standing orders".
In a post by an employee on Linkedin, it was stated that it submitted its "Application formally at the end of April 2023". That would mean it took the company just over 20 months to achieve authorisation. That is certainly at the longer end of time taken to obtain authorisation based on data we are tracking. The period may have been longer if one includes the usual amount of Central Bank facing before one is invited to submit a formal application.

What happened in the world of Irish fintech authorisations and registrations in 2024?

Electronic Money Institutions: two were authorised in 2024 (Navro Payments Europe Limited and Decta Limited).
Payment Institutions: 2 were authorised in 2024 (Etsy Payments Ireland Limited and Ace Money Transfer Limited) and one its authorisation was withdrawn (CUSOP (Payments) DAC).
Account Information Service Providers (standalone): 2 were registered in 2024 (Glenman Software Development Limited and Intuit Ireland Software Limited - this ignores double counting of CRIF)
Crowdfunding Service Providers: 2 were registered in 2024 (Pitchedit Limited and Lendermarket Limited)
Virtual Asset Services Providers: 11 were registered (Foris DAX Global Limited, Fortuna Digital Custody Ltd, Sors Digital Assets Limited, CoinJar Europe Limited, Ramp Swaps (Ireland) Limited, HashKey Europe Limited, StoneX Digital International Ltd, Fidelity Digital Assets Ireland Ltd, Figure Markets Ireland Ltd, Push Virtual Assets Ireland Limited and Legend Financial Ireland Limited).

Special thanks to the Project Foundry for sponsoring the Indigenous Fintech Ireland Map. Until we update that larger Map of more than 260+ fintechs, we are expressing our gratitude to the Team Project Foundry on our sectorial Fintech Maps.

Sign up to our Newsletter here.
Need assistance with an emoney or payments authorisation or an account information service provider or virtual asset services provider registration application, check out Fintech Ireland and CompliReg's handy authorisation guides at https://fintechireland.com/fintech-authorisations.html.

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MiCAR - Industry Roundtable on KFD issued by the Central Bank of Ireland

25/11/2024

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MiCAR - Industry Roundtable on KFD issued by the Central Bank of Ireland

*** MiCAR Industry Roundtable on the KFD ***

Here it is - the Central Bank of Ireland's MiCAR Key Facts Document. It is hot of the press and having read through it we will point out some of the more interesting and significant aspects of the process and our initial thoughts on the authorisation process at the Fintech Ireland Summit this Thursday 28th November 2024 in Dublin.

Separately Fintech Ireland and MiCA Ready / CompliReg will host a Fintech Ireland / MiCAReady Industry Roundtable next week for VASPs already registered in Ireland/elsewhere and others yet to start a registration / CASP authorisation journey.

To register your interest for that MiCAR Industry Roundtable - if you are a VASP / future CASP seeking authorisation in Ireland - email: [email protected] (cc [email protected]) with your name and the name of your VASP. We will then revert with details of the event date and venue for next week. And we will update you at the Fintech Ireland Summit on Thursday.

If you are a VASP/CASP and not yet registered for the Summit, come along to start the journey and relationship for your MiCAR journey in Ireland. Remaining tickets for Thursday at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/fintech-ireland-summit-2024-tickets-913836217727?aff=FI1

For a copy of the KFD click here to download

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Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report Edition 1 - Issued by the Central Bank of Ireland

26/6/2024

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We will be covering the topics of Central Bank of Ireland Authorisations and its role as Gatekeeper to the regulated Irish financial services community at the Fintech Ireland Summit taking place on Thursday 28 November 2024. Read more here.

Central Bank of Ireland has today, Wednesday 26 June 2024, issued the first edition of the Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report.

We posted about this on Linkedin here. You can watch the movie of extracts from the Report here.

In this blog you can download a copy of the Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report (in the next link below and at end of blog). We have copied and pasted the forward by Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Ireland immediately below.

Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation, Central Bank of Ireland

Foreword

Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor, Financial Regulation

I am very pleased to introduce the Central Bank of Ireland’s (“The Central Bank”) inaugural “Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report". The Central Bank regulates and supervises over 12,000 firms providing products and services in Ireland, the European Union (“EU”) and around the world. Our mission is to serve the public interest by maintaining monetary and financial stability while ensuring that the financial system operates in the best interests of consumers and the wider economy.

A strong regulatory and supervisory framework, ensuring we have a stable, resilient and trustworthy financial sector, enables us to deliver on our mission for the public. Our gatekeeping role is an integral part of that framework – helping to ensure firms and individuals are of a sufficiently high standard to meet regulatory requirements and to be trusted with the public’s money. Since 2018, the Central Bank has either authorised or approved close to 12,000 applications across a range of financial service providers, prospectuses and regulated financial products and has approved over 18,000 applications for senior positions in the financial sector in Ireland as part of our Fitness and Probity (“F&P”) regime. In 2023 alone, we received almost 3,300 applications for authorisation or approval and over 3,300 applications for senior positions.

In order to ensure the system and the public are protected and that trust is maintained, gatekeeping, and the phrase “regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland”, has to mean something in terms of standards and reassurance to the people of Ireland. As such, the process needs to be robust, and the standard needs to be appropriately high.

However, given the volume of applicants and the benefits of new entrants for consumers and the wider economy, to ensure the gate is not an undue barrier to entry it is also important that the process is efficient and that it is transparent.

As such in recent years as part of our ongoing commitment to efficiency and in the face of feedback that we could improve our clarity and responsiveness to incoming applications, we have increased engagement and significantly improved our processes. We have done this while maintaining the high standard the public expects of regulated providers of financial services and of us.

As I have said before this is not about prioritising speed over rigour, as the authorisation process is just the beginning of the regulatory and supervisory relationship, and our experience is that going through the gate too swiftly often presents issues on the other side.

Recognising that better prepared firms find the authorisation process the most straightforward, in addition to increasing the efficiency and transparency of our own processes we have improved our communications and have set clearer expectations for firms. This aims to deliver better and more complete applications to the benefit of both the applicants and the Central Bank, increasing the efficiency of the gate, while maintaining its robustness. Through this new report, we are providing further transparency to all stakeholders. The report sets out how we discharge and continue to refine our authorisation mandate by:

Providing information on our authorisation framework and risk appetite;
Explaining our priorities and expectations of applicant firms;
Providing insight into the operation of the F&P regime; and
Outlining the key challenges that we see for firms seeking authorisation.

We hope it is useful for all stakeholders, and complements our other engagements and publications. Looking ahead, enhancing how we regulate and supervise across all sectors is a strategic priority of the Central Bank. This includes continuing to enhance our authorisation processes, in terms of clarity, predictability and transparency for those seeking to be authorised.

We will continue to improve our own process as well as our engagement and communication with the sector. We also want to learn from experience and welcome feedback from stakeholders on our processes.

END

Download the inaugural “Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report"

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Legend Trading's Irish subsidiary secures coveted CASP Authorisation from the Central Bank

Monzo Bank invests a further €2million (total €8mn to date) setting up its EU base in Ireland

Ireland is now home to at least 85 regulated fintechs. Lendermarket & Rippling Payments join the Irish fintech ecosystem. New Maps Released thanks to CompliReg.com.

MiCAR - Industry Roundtable on KFD issued by the Central Bank of Ireland

Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report Edition 1 - Issued by the Central Bank of Ireland

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