** Another regulated payments institution for Ireland **

It has been an interesting number of months since Fintech Ireland published the last 'Emoney & Payment Services Firms Authorised in Ireland' Map back on 1 July 2020 (thanks to CompliReg). At that date we only had 3 emoney/payments firms authorised in Ireland in 2020.

On 11 September 2020, Ireland welcomed another #brexit hedge firm, this one being Segpay Ireland, authorised as payments institution for 3(c). Execution of credit transfers, including standing orders and (5) Issuing of payment instruments and/or acquiring of payment transactions.

“We’ve spent countless hours preparing for Brexit because it was so important to have our merchants remain on solid ground when Brexit officially goes into motion,” said Cathy Beardsley, Segpay President & CEO. Ailish Penston is Country Manager. 

Welcome to Ireland SegPay and also the many others in the Central Bank of Ireland authorisation pipeline!

Read more about SegPay here.

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.

If you are looking to get authorised in Ireland as an emoney or payments firm, see these Authorisation Guides.

An MEP representing Ireland in the European Parliament, Mairead McGuinness, has been appointed as EU Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and the Capital Markets Union – which includes spearheading Europe’s new AML drive.

Ms McGuinness was appointed to the influential role following the resignation of Phil Hogan (a previous nominee of the Irish government) who served as Commissioner for trade.  Mr Hogan resigned his Commissioner role following a scandal involving an Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) Golf Society event at which a number of other people attended - including senior members of financial services and banking representatives - alleged to be in breach of Ireland's coronavirus guidelines last month.

When all is said and done, has to be viewed that Ireland, particularly its ever-growing fintech & financial services industry, should be very happy with Mairead McGuinness -  a current First Vice President of the European Parliament - being appointed as European Commission's new Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services & Capital Markets Union.  Her new role will encompass banking, insurance, fintech  (payments & emoney), insurtech and financial crime including anti-money laundering.

It is important to bear in mind that Ms McGuiness is not appointed to fly the green flag nor wear the green jersey for Ireland.  Just as Mr Hogan was 'not Ireland's man in Brussels' which so many people who should know better said when his role at the EC was being questioned.  The role of an European Commissioner is to serve Europe first, not do deals to put Ireland's (or any Member State's) interest above the EU.  If that happens with respect to any such appointment, then there is at least one word to describe that - "corruption".  See further reading below.

Announcing Ms McGuinness' appointment Ursula Von der Leyen, European Commission President, described McGuinness as having “significant political experience on EU issues” as an MEP since 2004. She added that her previous experience was “crucial in carrying forward the EU’s financial policy agenda” and “ensuring it supports and strengthens the Commission’s key priority”.

McGuinness will oversee the upcoming sixth money laundering directive, which is due to be implemented by December 2020.  Which is rather interesting since Ireland was fined €2 million by Europe's highest court on foot of a complaint from the European Commission for Ireland's failure to implement the 5th AML Directive on time.  Goes to show that when it comes to Ireland, the European Commission acts in a very independent manner! In fairness, important to add that Ireland was not the only naughty school child - Romania was fined €3m for the same breach.

Some other observations, #1 and 2 captured above:

1. Ms McGuiness is not appointed to fly the green flag nor wear the green jersey for Ireland.
2. Ms McGuiness is to oversee the upcoming 6th AMLD due to be implemented by December 2020. Interesting since Ireland was fined €2 million for failure to implement 5th AML Directive on time.
3. Ms McGuiness's Director-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union is an equally capable person, who also happens to be Irish: the Director-General John Berrigan (see org chart below).
4. Another Irish person with a senior influential role in Europe is Ireland's Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, elected head of eurozone finance ministers back in July https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0709/1152184-eurogroup-president-election/.  What is it with Irish professionals and EU finance and financial services?

Further reading:

"When Ursula Von der Leyen makes her selection, von der Leyen should ignore lobbying for specific posts from Dublin and every other member state and political grouping. It’s her right to assign portfolios as she sees fit, based on her assessment of the skills and experience of her commissioners and the overall composition she believes she needs to implement her agenda. The challenges facing the European Union, and the European Commission as its policy engine-room, are far too great to allow the effectiveness of the institutions to be compromised by the states’ all-too-narrow conception of their own influence."  Irish Times 7 September 2020. 

CompliReg, supporters of the Fintech Ireland Map, have written a short blog on the announcement (10th August 2020) that the Irish Government Cabinet has approved the publication of new draft rules which, if passed by both houses of Ireland's parliament, will strengthen existing Irish money laundering and terrorist financing laws to bring Ireland further into compliance with the 5th AML/CTF Directive.

Readers may recall that in July 2020, together with Romania, Ireland was fined €2 million for its delay in implementing the necessary legal changes to give effect to the 5th AML/CTF Directive.

This blog is particularly relevant for regulated #Fintech firms, such as payment services and emoney firms, and the soon to be captured cryptoasset / cryptocurrency / cryptoexchange / cryptowallet providers operating from Ireland.

More here - ​https://complireg.com/blogs--insights/new-irish-anti-money-laundering-rules-approved-by-government

Download the CB Insights "Q2 2020 State of Fintech" release here

There are 66 #fintech unicorns valued at $248B. These are comprised of Global VC-backed fintech companies with a private market valuation of $1B+ as of 30 June 2020 according to CB Insights. 

Although there are several such unicorns identified in the UK, there are none identified in Ireland. Notwithstanding, Ireland must be close to having at least one or two in near future given the data being tracked by Fintech Ireland. 

Other interesting news in CB Insights report is, not surprisingly, that Big Tech firms, especially US TechFin, are investing heavily in payments products. And its not limited to just North American, European and Asian markets as Facebook and Google are eyeing tools to expand into emerging markets like Brazil and India.

Lots of other useful stuff in the Q2'20 State of Fintech release, such as:

* 17% fintech funding rebound Q2'20 with deal activity continuing to fall; and

* Asia the only continent without a dollar funding rebound in Q2'20 -- North America, Europe, South America, Africa, and Australia all saw increases. 

Download the CB Insights "Q2 2020 State of Fintech" release here