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

​
* 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.

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

Back in 2002 the Business Post (Connected Magazine) issued its inaugural 'The Fintech 15' by (Charlie Taylor).  Earlier this year the team issued 'The 100 Most Powerful People in Tech in Ireland' (Charlie Taylor).

Donal MacNamee has just issued "The Fintech 15: meet the women shaping the Irish revolution" and "The trailblazers", celebrating their achievements.

To honour this fantastic selection of people, Fintech Ireland has created a collage showing all of them in one image above. More power to all of you! As we know - there is no such thing as an overnight success!​

Here is the list of the Fintech 15!

• Andrea Reynolds, chief executive and founder, Swoop
• Nicola O'Brien, Monzo Bank
• Andrea Linehan, Chief Marketing Officer
• Joanna Murphy, chief executive, Taxback and Sprintax
• Mai Santamaria FCA Santamaria, head of financial advisory, Department of Finance Ireland
• Leigh-anne Cotter, vice-president of customer growth, TrueLayer
• Eimear O'Brien, partner, global regulatory, Hogan Lovells
• Ciara O'Grady, regulatory partner and fintech lead, Deloitte
• Susan O’Neill, chief executive and co-founder, Sulu
• Lesley Tully, founder, Penny FS / This is Penny
• Deborah Hutton, partner and principal, DEH LAW; co-founder, ReClosure (Propto)
• Ciara Walsh, co-founder and chief marketing officer, JustTip Technologies
• Miriam Dunne, head of innovation and stakeholder engagement, Central Bank of Ireland
• Alison McMurtrie, founder and chief executive, iDunn Consulting
• Karen Cohalan, head of fintech, financial and business services, Enterprise Ireland

And here are the trailblazers!

• Sinead Fitzmaurice, CEO, TransferMate Global Payments
• Fidelma McGuirk, CEO, Payslip
• Ruth McCarthy is head of compliance, risk and policy at Fexco Group
• Geraldine Dautun, founder, AQMetrics 
• Elaine Deehan, special project manager, Monzo Bank. 

Links:

25 October 2024: The Fintech 15: meet the women shaping the Irish revolution:  https://www.businesspost.ie/tech-news/the-fintech-15-meet-the-women-shaping-the-irish-revolution/

25 October 2024: Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peteroakes_irishfintech-activity-7255608937754890243-Wb2B

27 August 2022: The Fintech 15: the people making waves in one of Ireland’s leading tech sectors https://www.businesspost.ie/tech/the-fintech-15-the-people-making-waves-in-one-of-irelands-leading-tech-sectors/

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.