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The Irish government has unveiled the country’s new National Payments Strategy (NPS), which challenges both regulators and industry to modernise and increase competitiveness in the payments ecosystem. 

The NPS, launched by Minister for Finance Jack Chambers, acknowledges a significant gap in the Irish payments landscape, and commits the EU member state to a set of new obligations in the coming years, aiming to bring the country up to speed with its neighbours elsewhere in Europe. 

“The Irish payments landscape is very different today than ten years ago when the previous iteration of this strategy was put in place,” said Chambers upon announcing the strategy. 

“Consumers are increasingly turning to digital means of payment, be they card payments or tapping to pay at retail outlets with smartphones or watches. There has also been much discussion around the decline in the use of cash for day-to-day payments and the need to protect this form of payment, which remains the preferred form of payment for so many in our society, including older people.”

Chambers said that to ensure the Irish economy benefits from the advantages of emerging technologies and payment methods, while also taking into account the need to ensure the continued availability of more traditional forms of payments, this strategy sets out a vision for the future of payments in Ireland.

Promoting Account-to-Account (A2A) payments

Unlike other European nations, Ireland lacks robust infrastructure for direct payments from bank or credit union accounts to other accounts, without intermediaries like credit cards. 

The new strategy aims to close this gap and put the country’s payment capabilities on a par with those of its EU neighbours.

“A gap has been identified in the Irish payments market... in the ability to make payments online or in person, from a bank or credit union account directly to another account, without an intermediary instrument, such as a card,” the report states.

To achieve this, the NPS identifies enablers including open banking and instant payments. 

“Consumers in Ireland should be aware of the benefits of engaging with open banking providers and should be aware of the full suite of payment options available to them,” the NPS said. “To ensure this, more needs to be done to raise consumer awareness.”

The NPS also says that the slow speed of credit transfers in Europe has held back the concept of A2A or pay-by-account options, but that the adoption of the EU’s Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) provides the foundation for new opportunities for pay-by-account solutions.

To achieve its goals, the NPS sets out that the Irish Retail Payment Forum (IRPF) will establish an Account-to-Account Working Group (A2A WG) in early 2025, consisting of stakeholders like banks, payment providers, and merchants. 

This group will be tasked with monitoring the adoption of instant payments, addressing barriers to open banking, exploring Ireland's participation in the European Payments Council's SEPA Payments Account Access scheme (SPAA) and developing a roadmap for integrating with European payment solutions. 

The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), meanwhile, will collaborate with this group to gather and publish open banking data regularly, beginning by mid-2025. Progress will be reported annually to the minister for finance.

To enhance awareness of open banking and A2A services, the Fintech & Payments Association of Ireland will organise themed events starting in early 2025.

These events will focus on engaging accounting system providers and SMEs, as well as fostering collaboration between key industry stakeholders such as banks, fintechs and regulatory bodies.

This is intended to boost knowledge and support for open banking solutions across the Irish payments ecosystem.

Taking on fraud 

Like France, which also launched its new payment strategy this week, Ireland has a strong focus on improving the outlook for tackling fraud in the country. 

“Close to half of all respondents to the consultation for this strategy raised the issue of fraud or scams,” the NPS said. “This level of engagement demonstrates that this is a priority issue for stakeholders.”

In response to fraud risks, the NPS sets out a variety of measures that will be implemented throughout 2025. 

For example, the Department of Justice will introduce legislation to create a shared fraud database, developed by the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), and this database will allow participating organisations to share data, identify suspicious activity, and prevent fraud more effectively by using data-matching rules. 

According to the NPS, this initiative will enable banks and payment providers to dynamically adjust their fraud monitoring systems in response to emerging threats.

In addition, the BPFI will also be able to apply for "trusted flagger" status under the Digital Services Act. 

If certified, this status would grant the organisation priority access to report illegal online content, such as fraudulent advertisements, to platforms for immediate review.

The goal is to enhance the detection and reporting of online fraud, ensuring that fraudulent content flagged by financial institutions is dealt with swiftly, and addressing what is often an issue with the payments ecosystem — that big tech companies fail to reach fraudulent advertisements in time. 

The NPS also commits the Irish government to addressing the issue of scam calls, which often deceive consumers by using spoofed inbound-only numbers associated with banks or public services. 

To combat this, a "Do Not Originate" (DNO) list will be implemented by the country's communications regulator and telecom operators. 

Public sector bodies and private organisations will submit inbound-only numbers to this list, preventing scammers using these numbers to impersonate legitimate entities

In addition, an SMS ID Registry will help block fraudulent texts by requiring organisations to register their SMS sender IDs, further reducing the risk of scams through telecom channels.

The NPS says that gaps have been identified in coordination between different sectors, and commits Ireland to taking a “horizontal approach” to dealing with the issue. 

For example, an Anti-Fraud Forum will be established to bring together telecom firms, financial services providers, online platforms, and regulators from each sector. 

The aim of the forum is to facilitate information sharing on emerging fraud trends, optimise interventions, and improve coordination between sectors to combat fraud more effectively. It marks the first time fraud prevention will be addressed comprehensively across these industries, with regulators involved to ensure timely and targeted actions.

The forum will be chaired by an independent individual, rotating every 2.5 years, starting with a representative from the financial services industry, specifically the BPFI. 

It will set its terms of reference and work plan, adjusting as new fraud-related issues arise, and will report annually to key government departments.

Increasing resilience

With the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) on the horizon and in response to high-profile events such as the Crowd Strike outage, the new strategy devotes significant attention to resilience in payments. 

The NPS says that Ireland’s Financial Stability Group (FSG) will lead efforts to enhance the system-wide resilience of the Irish payments system, including the cash cycle.

It will do so through its crisis preparedness sub-group, and in collaboration with industry and government stakeholders, it will assess current contingency arrangements for managing disruptions. 

This work will focus on identifying actions to strengthen system resilience and the sub-group will report its findings to the FSG by Q1 2026. 

Recommendations to ensure the continued stability of payment services will be made where necessary, and the initiative will begin in the first half of 2025.

Liquidation is another resiliency issue addressed by the NPS. 

“A key element of a robust regulatory framework that safeguards financial stability, that ensures resilience of the sector, and that protects consumers is the availability to relevant authorities of powers to deal with firms in distress and to ensure that failing firms can exit the market in an orderly way,” the strategy states. 

It adds that while fintech firms have delivered innovation and other opportunities to the payments ecosystem in Ireland, “they can also present both traditional and new risks that need to be managed. Risks may be more elevated where governance and risk-control frameworks are immature in such new or emerging regulated firms or sectors.”

To lower risk exposure, the Department of Finance will assess the need to grant the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) liquidation powers concerning payment firms, based on input from the CBI, and a report with recommendations will be submitted to the country’s finance minister by the end of June 2025.

Reaction

The reaction to the NPS has been one of positivity from market participants and regulators alike. 

Speaking to ����žž, Joe Morley, general manager for Europe at TrueLayer said that the NPS “represents a major step forward with its focus on account-to-account payments.”

“By recognising their huge potential, the Department of Finance and the Payments Policy team at the Central Bank of Ireland are putting in place a strong foundation for growth across financial services, e-commerce and beyond,” he continued. 

Morley said that the “emphasis on user experience, the role of retail banks and tracking open banking performance are crucial for driving wider awareness and adoption.”

“Combined with progress on SEPA Instant, this strategy sets a strong path for the future of payments in Ireland."

Meanwhile, Derville Rowland, deputy governor of the CBI, said that the NPS “represents a significant milestone for the future development of the Irish payments ecosystem.”

“The central bank looks forward to contributing to the successful realisation of the strategy over the next five years and beyond,” she said.

According to Rowland, the NPS “outlines a number of ambitious actions that will lay the foundation for the future growth of the Irish payments ecosystem”. 

A spokesperson for the BPFI has also welcomed the NPS publication. 

“We acknowledge the extensive work undertaken by the Department of Finance and industry stakeholders in developing this strategy [that] aims to ensure that consumer choice and confidence remain at the centre of the evolution of payments in the years ahead,” the spokesperson said in a statement. 

The spokesperson said that BPFI, as one of the key industry stakeholders supporting the implementation of the NPS, is “fully committed to delivering significant industry actions [that] underpin the strategy including future digital innovations, open banking payments, enhancing access to cash and supporting a resilient payment ecosystem”. 

“These actions reflect our collective aim to build a future-proof, inclusive and secure payments system that serves the diverse needs of consumers and businesses alike.”