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

As of 5 September 2023 we have produced an updated Fintech Ireland Map of authorised electronic money institutions, authorised payment institutions and registered account information services providers.

New to version 12 of the Map is Freemarketfx Ireland Limited, which was authorised on Monday 4 September 2022 to payment services 3c and 5.  These services allow Freemarkefx Ireland to provide:

• #3)  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: (c) Execution of credit transfers, including standing orders; and
• #5) Issuing of payment instruments and/or acquiring of payment transactions. 

To date since the start of 2023, Ireland's Central Bank has authorised just three firms as either an electronic money institution (EMI) or a payments institutions (API) i.e. Freemarketfx Ireland (API), TransferMate (Interpay Limited) (EMI) and NoFrixion Limited (EMI). TransferMate was previously authorised as a payments institution from 2011-2023 before becoming an EMI in April 2023.  Thus effectively, NoFrixion and Freemarketfx Ireland are the only new entities to become authorised in 2023 (2 authorisations in 8 months).    

Freemarketfx Ireland Limited was authorised more than 2.5 years after it was incorporated in Ireland on 23 March 2021. According to Irish companies registration records, Freemarketfx Ireland is 100% owned by FreemarketFX Limited in the UK, which as per the UK FCA records, has been an Authorised Payment Institution since 16 May 2018.

Our Peter Oakes last spoke with Charlie Taylor of the Business Post on the topic of regulatory authorisations on Sunday 20 August 2023.

• Peter Oakes, a former Central Bank enforcement director and founder of Fintech Ireland, said a firm setting up in Ireland needs to be aware that the upfront and post-authorisation costs in the first year will set them back about €1.5 million.
• “A considerable part of this outlay is required ahead of approval with no guarantee it will be given,” Oakes said.
• “No one wants to say this because everyone will say that by doing this you are not flying the green flag. Some consultants hide behind that because they might not be engaged [by clients] and risk losing other client work both pre and post authorisation in areas such as tax, IP, employment, commercial and corporate work. No-one should be surprised by this,” he added.

Ireland is now home to 47 legal entities which provide either payment services or emoney services.  There are 26 payments services firms in Ireland which includes 4 account information services providers and 22 emoney firms.  The records of four firms state that their authorisations were withdrawn.  The three that are no longer authorised to provide services in Ireland are Xpress Money Services Limited,  SWFS Ireland Limited and Modulr FS Europe Limited.  The 4th entity, noted above, Interpay Limited (TransferMate) switched from payments services only to an electronic money (plus payment services 3b, 3c, 5, 6).


Further Reading: See our post on the release of version 11 of this Map for more information. 

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

Posted by Peter Oakes, Fintech Ireland  - ​https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteroakes

** Authorisation by Central Bank of Ireland of an Electronic Money Institution and a Payments Institution **

Our last post on additions to the Irish regulated fintech family of payment services firms and electronic money firms was back on 5 November 2020 when we released Version 3.0 of the 'Emoney & Payment Services Firms Authorised in Ireland Map' as at 2 November 2020.

Again thanks to CompliReg we have released an update to that Map, which now stands at Version 3.0.  The new joiners are OFX Payments Ireland Limited and BlueSnap Payment Services Ireland Limited. 

OFX Payments was authorised on 16 December 2020, and in addition to its authorisation to issue emoney it also secured payments services 3c, 4c, 5, and 6.  BlueSnap Payments received its payments institution authorisation on 23 December 2020 and is authorised to provide payment service 5. See below for a description of these payment services numbers*.

Both firms arrive in Ireland ahead of the end of the Brexit transition date from the UK where their UK affiliates are authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. OFX's global headquarters is in Sydney, Australia and BlueSnap was founded in Israel.

Welcome to Ireland OFX and Bluesnap.  We know that there are others soon to join the regulated fintech ecosystem in Ireland which are making their way through the Central Bank of Ireland authorisation pipeline!  

Those firms in the above Map which are indigenous to Ireland also appear on our bigger Fintech Ireland Map version 3.0 which you can find here. If you think you should be on the Fintech Ireland Map, complete our Survey.  Do it soon as version 4 of that Map is slated for release very shortly!

If you are looking to get authorised in Ireland as an emoney or payments firm, see these Authorisation Guides and feel free to contact us for a informative dialogue on the authorisation process.  We are chatting with about 4-5 firms a week.  The completion of the Brexit transition period has not cooled interest in Ireland as a home for regulated fintech!

* Payment Services:
3. 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 ... (c). Execution of credit transfers, including standing orders
4. Execution of payment transactions where the funds are covered by a credit line for a payment service user ... (c). Execution of credit transfers, including standing orders
5. Issuing of payment instruments and/or acquiring of payment transactions
​6. Money remittance

** Two additional Electronic Money Firms now authorised in Ireland **

Our last post on additions to the Irish regulated fintech family of payment services firms and electronic money firms was back on 30 September when we released Version 2.1 of the 'Emoney & Payment Services Firms Authorised in Ireland Map' as at 11 September 2020.

Again thanks to CompliReg we have released an update to that Map, which now stands at Version 3.0.  The new joiners are Modulr FS Europe Limited and SumUp Limited.  In addition to their emoney authorisations, both firms can provide payment services 3(c) and (5), and in addition, SumUp can also provide payment services 3(b).  See below for a description of these payment services numbers*.

Followers of Fintech Ireland will recall that we co-hosted an event with Modulr at the start of the year (when during pre-covid 19 days we could all get together) on 3rd March 2020, aptly titled 'The Future of E-Money - Modulr & Fintech Ireland' with Myles Stephenson, Founder and Chief Executive and John Irwin, General Manager of Modulr and Fintech Ireland's/Fintech UK's our Peter Oakes.

Welcome to Ireland SumUp and Modulr and soon too the many others making their way through the Central Bank of Ireland authorisation pipeline!  

Those firms in the above Map which are indigenous to Ireland also appear on our bigger Fintech Ireland Map version 3.0 which you can find here. If you think you should be on the Fintech Ireland Map, complete our Survey.  Do it soon as version 4 of that Map is slated for release very shortly!

If you are looking to get authorised in Ireland as an emoney or payments firm, see these Authorisation Guides and feel free to contact us for a informative dialogue on the authorisation process.  We are chatting with about 2-3 firms a week.

* Payment Services:
3 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:

(b). Execution of payment transactions through a payment card or a similar device;
(c). Execution of credit transfers, including standing orders
5. Issuing of payment instruments and/or acquiring of payment transactions

Thanks NewsTalk for radio interview this morning on Brexit & "Regulatory Arbitrage" and the fintech opportunities for Ireland. LISTEN TO AUDIO HERE

Background to this piece, thanks to Donal O'Donovan, is Irish and international media over the past few weeks reporting claims that Ireland is becoming a victim of 'regulatory arbitrage' and 'dangerous competition' for 'Brexit Spoils'.  The Irish Minister for State (Financial Services), Eoghan Murphy has been moved to raise concerns with Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU financial services commissioner.  Murphy informed Reuters that “We are hearing from various sources that companies are being offered certain incentives, that they are offering a back door to the single market, without the requirement to have capital to back up their entities in the European Union.”   In a sign that there may be more to come, the Financial Times reported that "against the background of the risk to stability in the European financial system. The heads of Esma and EIOPA, two key EU financial regulatory agencies, are believed to have raised similar concerns [to those of Eoghan Murphy] in recent days." [source FT, 14/03/2017 - Irish complain about rivals in Brexit race for London’s business].  

This post is also carried at LinkedIN - https://www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6249557917670862848