It is a busy Q4 2024 in the Irish crypto asset sector with 6 Virtual Asset Services Providers obtain registration with the Central Bank of Ireland.  And all six are very welcome to the Fintech Ireland and MiCA Ready Fintech Maps.  Special thanks to the CompliReg for sponsoring and supporting this edition (version 9) of the the Virtual Asset Service Providers Map.    

Joining the Irish Fintech Ecosystem are:

1. CoinJar Europe Limited - registered to provide services: #i, ii, iii & iv *
2. Figure Markets Ireland Ltd - registered to provide services: #iii
3. Legend Financial Ireland Limited - registered to provide services: #i & ii
4. HashKey Europe Limited - registered to provide services #i, ii, iii & iv
5. Fidelity Digital Assets Ireland Ltd - registered to provide services #i, iii & iv
6. StoneX Digital International Ltd - registered to provide services ##i, ii, iii & iv

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* Service Provided as appearing on Central Bank Register as at 4 December 2024:

(i) Provision of exchange services between virtual assets and fiat currencies
(ii) Exchange between one or more forms of virtual assets;
(iii) Transfer (to conduct a transaction on behalf of another natural or legal person that
moves a virtual asset from one virtual asset address or account to another) of virtual assets
(iv) Custodian wallet providers


The above six VASPs bring the total number of Registered VASPs in Ireland to 21, joining these other 15 VASPs.

• Gemini Intergalactic Europe Limited
• Zodia Custody (Ireland) Limited 
• Coinbase Europe Limited 
• Coinbase Custody International Limited 
• Paysafe Payment Solutions Limited
• Payward Europe Solutions Limited (Kraken)
• NoFrixion Limited
• Pionew Ireland Limited
• Moonpay Technology Services Limited                
• Zodia Markets (Ireland) Limited 
• Ripple Markets Ireland Limited
• Fortuna Digital Custody Ltd
• Ramp Swaps (Ireland) Limited
• Foris DAX Global Limited (Crypto.com)
• Sors Digital Assets Limited

The increase in the number of Registered VASPs brings the total number of Authorised and Registered Fintechs to at least 82 players.  This definition of fintech covers VASPs, Emoney Firms, Payment Institutions, AISPs and PISPs authorised or registered in Ireland. There are other firms, such as MiFID firms that are likely fintech and will include those we identify on a Map at a later date.

​Find these 82 Authorised and Registered fintechs on the Map below.

Delighted to be issuing updated Fintech Ireland Maps.  Would like to also announce, with special thanks, Project Foundry for their sponsorship of the Fintech Ireland Indigenous Map.  Thanks for your support guys. As a special thank you we have recognised them on Version 12 of the Regulated Fintech Map.  Read more about Project Foundry in our announcement here.

We last issued the Regulated Fintech Map and the Emoney & Payments Map on 19 July 2024 (version 11). At that time there were 75 such firms showcased on the Regulated Fintech Map.  Joining version 12 of that Map are:

• Pitchedit Limited trading as Shuttle which achieved authorisation as a crowdfunding firm on 28 August 2024 under Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503.
• Gleman Software Development trading as Bullet, which achieved registration on 3 September 2024 as an open-banking firm under Regulation 25(1)(b) of the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018.

Bullet also joins version 21 of the Emoney and Payments Map by virtue of it being an account information services provider.

Fintech Ireland is delighted to welcome both firms to the ever-growing Regulated Fintech Map (Version 12) and the VASP Map (version 8).  Thanks to CompliReg which supports firms in the fintech industry.

Congratulations to both for increasing the ranks of Irish regulated fintech.  

Shuttle, founded by the infectious Robert Halligan and Scott Ashmore, is an alternative investment platform providing investors with access to private market investment opportunities through a subscription service. Both Robert and Scott are directors of Shuttle, which was incorporated in June 2021.  When we spoke to Scott and Rob recently, they informed us "We're really excited to get authorised by the CBI and appreciate all the support Fintech Ireland have given us these last two years".

Bullet is all-in-one toolkit built on a finance platform.  Its sole director is Peter Connor.  It was incorporated way back in July 2020 before there was such a word as ‘fintech’!

At the same time we bid farewell to CUSOP (Payments) which surrendered its authorisation as a payments institution on 13 September 2024.

CUSOP (Payments) established in August 2011 was set up as a shared services entity to provide electronic payment services to participant credit unions and is owned by the CUSOP Trust on behalf of the participating credit unions.  While it made a loss for the year ending 2023 in the amount of €774K and saw a drop in the number of credit unions which it served, the fintech processed €25.8mn in payments in 2023 up from €24.1 in the previous year.  The associated value processed grew to a new record of €7.8bn up 10% from €7.1bn in 2022. 

So why did the fintech wind down its business and withdrew its authorisation?

This is owed to the outcome of the due diligence phase of a merger process involving CUSOP and Payac when it become clear that the proposed merger could not proceed as originally envisaged.  It did not help that there was a decreasing number of credit unions availing of CUSOP’s services and other considerations.

Welcome Etsy Payments Ireland Limited to the regulated fintech ecosytem in Ireland!  Its authorisation brings the pool of regulated fintech in Ireland to 67, comprised of:

• 26 authorised electronic money institutions
• 21 payments institutions,
• 4 standalone open banking firms
• 11 virtual asset services providers and
• 5 crowdfunding services providers. 

We are pretty sure that these numbers will continue to grow in 2024.

Etsy Payments Ireland was authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland on Tuesday 20 February 2024 as a payments institution.  It is the first payments institutions to be authorised in Ireland in 2024 and the first such firm authorised since early September 2024 when Freemarketfx Ireland Limited became authorised.  Earlier this month an electronic money institution received authorisation.

Etsy Payments Ireland has been authorised to provide payment service #5, which is "Issuing of payment instruments and/or acquiring of payment transactions".  The company was incorporated back on 14 June 2019 and has been active since that date.  According to CRO records for Etsy Payments Ireland as at year end 31 December 2022 the company had a turnover of €609K, cash in the bank of €2.5mn and Net Assets of €2.64mn. Not often one sees such figures at a company which is going through authorisation.

​Gary French announced his appointment to the role of Chief Executive Officer at Etsy Payments Ireland in a Linkedin post yesterday. Gary is also on the board of the company.  Before joining the Etsy brand, Gary worked at Google  / Google Payment Ireland Limited and Elavon.

2024 is off to a slow start for those expecting a slew of authorisations and registrations by the Central Bank of Ireland of electronic money institutions, payments institutions and virtual asset services providers.

2023 saw just 5 electronic money firms become authorised in Ireland and just 1 payments institution became authorised.  Given that one of the emoney firms authorised was an upgrade from a payments institution authorisation, Ireland only welcomed 4 new companies to its emoney / payments sector. There was better news for the local crypto industry with 7 virtual asset service providers becoming registered in 2023 out of a pool of 11 such firms. These virtual asset firms and others that may get registered in 2024 can look forward to a deeper and more intense authorisation process should they choose Ireland to be their European home under the Markets in Crypto Asset Regulation. Fingers crossed.  And note MiCAReady.com is here to help those firms and other plan for their pan-European Union journey.

​Thus far in 2024 just one of these types of companies has received the Central Bank's imprimatur, that being Navro Payments Europe Limited, formerly known as Paytrix Ireland Limited.  According to publicly available Central Bank records, Navro Payments Europe was authorised as an electronic money institution on Friday 2 February 2024 (and only appearing on the Central Bank's register run of 6 February). In addition to emoney services, Navro Payments Europe was also authorised to provide payment service #3c (i.e.  Execution of credit transfers, including standing orders.)

Last August it was announced that fintech industry pioneer Joe Redmond had joined the Paytrix team as the new CEO for Ireland to drive its compliance and expansion plans across Europe. Other heavy hitters involved with Navro Payments Europe includes Peter Rowan, who joined the board of directors on 28 September 2022 and is listed on his linkedin profile as General Manager in addition to his director role. Other board directors of the newly authorised Irish company are Paytrix founders Edward Harrison and Aran Brown.  

Navro Payments is 100% owned by Paytrix Holding Limited.  The company was rebranded Navro Payments according to Companies Registration Office records pursuant to section 32 of the Companies Act 2014.

​Ireland is now home to 26 authorised electronic money institutions, 21 payments institutions, 4 standalone open banking firms, 11 virtual asset services providers and 5 crowdfunding services providers.  Rumour has it that a few more firms will hit these registers in the coming days.  We'll wait and see. 

Looking back over the Period H1 2020 to H1 2023 - to co-ordinate with the Central Bank of Ireland’s own Regulatory Service Standards Performance Reports - there are some interesting observations. During that period, as shown in the image below, the regulator:

• received 171 applications
• completed 235 key information checks
• authorised 10 electronic money firms (one being an upgrade from payment institution authorisation [InterPay Limited] and another which subsequently withdrew its authorisation in 2022).
• authorised /registered just 7 payments firms, including a large portion being standalone open banking firms (i.e. AISP and PISP)

The data in the first two bullet points comes the section within the reports headed Payment Firms (Payment Institutions, Electronic Money Institutions, Small Electronic Money Institutions & Money Transmission Businesses) & Bureaux de Change Authorisations.  Unfortunately the regulator's statistics for Bureaux de Change do not show the date a firm was authorised/registered.  Further, in the absence of more detailed data, it is possible (if not probable) that there is some double counting here.  

The data in the last two bullet points comes from the regulator's registers. 

Based on the numbers of firms authorised/registered versus applications received, one might have a few questions about the throughput of applications at the Central Bank.  However, there is no point speculating or over analysing the limited information available in the public domain.  What we need to do so is publication of substantial, independent and detailed information about the authorisation process and deeper and richer metrics. 

What is fair to say is that since since 2017, when Ireland had just two electronic money firms, that number has swelled 12 fold to the start of February 2024. Over the same period, the number of payments firms (authorised and registered) has jumped from 10 to 25 in total (21 authorised and 4 registered). More impressive is the rapid but seemingly controlled growth of quality digital asset firms totaling 11 from July 2022 to the end of last year.