Zippay will make splitting bills and sending money easier for millions of Irish banking customers. But can it challenge the dominance of Revolut?
Sending and receiving money is about to get a little easier for millions of Irish bank customers.
AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB have announced plans to launch Zippay, a new mobile payments service, in early 2026. The service will allow customers to instantly transfer or request money, as well as split bills, simply by using the mobile number of a contact who is also signed up. So no need for IBANs or to set up a new payee.
Users will be able to send up to €1,000 per day as well as request up to €500 per transaction quickly and securely.
Importantly, Zippay will be integrated directly into the banks’ existing mobile apps, so there'll be no need to download a separate app.
Other financial institutions, including online banks like N26 and Revolut, will be able to join the new payments service if they wish, and reports say several other companies, understood to include the Credit Unions and An Post Money, are already in talks to join.
Nexi, a European tech company and one of the world's leading payment technology providers, will deliver the Zippay service in Ireland. Nexi already has a strong track record in the Irish financial services sector, having successfully partnered with Irish financial institutions to offer a range of digital payment services.
How do I sign up?
If you’re a customer of AIB, Bank of Ireland or PTSB, you don't have to do anything. Zippay will appear automatically in your bank’s mobile app when it launches next year — though you’ll likely have to download an update for your app first.
However, you do have the choice of opting out of the service if you want.
Is there a charge for using Zippay?
For now there are no fees or charges for using the service or for sending or receiving money.
Haven’t we been here before?
Yes we have.
The main banks previously had plans to launch a similar service called Yippay a few years ago.
This was a joint venture between AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, and KBC. And the idea was to create an Irish alternative to Revolut or PayPal.
However the project faced several regulatory delays and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) also raised competition concerns. Then, of course, KBC exited the Irish market.
As the setbacks and issues dragged on, online banks like Revolut also continued to grow. Many questioned the viability and even the point of the service, and the project was finally abandoned in 2023 after millions had been invested.
But now the banks are back for round two...
Why now?
It’s a good question. Since the previous venture was abandoned, the online banks have arguably just got even more popular. Indeed, almost every adult in the country now has a Revolut account.
And SEPA Instant Payments has also finally been rolled out in Ireland.
This allows you to send and receive money at any time of the day or night within 10 seconds to anyone in any of the 36 SEPA countries.
Until recently, it wasn’t mandatory for banks to offer SEPA Instant Payments. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the Irish banks didn't bother to.
However, in 2024 the EU formally adopted new rules to make it obligatory for all payment providers that already offer regular SEPA transfers to offer instant payments too.
But while SEPA is fast, it still requires the recipient’s IBAN. Zippay aims to make things simpler by letting people pay using just a phone number — a feature many are already used to with Revolut.
However, Zippay is just a payment service. Revolut also lets you buy and sell cryptocurrency and stocks and commodities, earn loyalty points on your purchases, create disposable cards for safer online shopping, get fee-free foreign exchange, and detailed insights into your spending. It even plans to start offering mortgages next year.
Speed and convenience
One thing which might set Zippay apart from the competition is its speed coupled with convenience.
Zippay requires no action from the Irish banks’ over 5 million customers. By embedding the service directly into their apps, it should be simple to use: no top-ups, no new accounts, no sign-ups and no extra apps are required. And you'll have the ability to speak to a human in a branch if something goes wrong.
And unlike using SEPA Instant Payments, you’ll only need someone’s phone number, not their IBAN.
Another advantage is that almost every adult in the country still has either AIB, Bank of Ireland or PTSB as their main bank account. While most also have a Revolut account, they tend to use it primarily for sending money to others. The hope for AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB must be that people simply stop topping up Revolut with money from one of the banks' own accounts and just send the money directly from Zippay.
In short, Zippay offers the speed of SEPA along with the convenience of Revolut.
But with Revolut so dominant, and offering so much more than just payments, the big question is: will people bother using it?
