New mobile payment service not trying to take over Revolut sector, trade body says

Vivienne Clarke

A new mobile banking payment service that allows users to transfer money with only a phone number is not an attempt to challenge Revolut's market position, the banking trade body has said.

Brian Hayes, Chief Executive of the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), has denied that Zippay, the new person-to-person mobile payment service from the three main banks, is an attempt to take over the Revolut sector.

Zippay will be available “in early 2026” for AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB customers, he told RTÉ radio’s Today with David McCullagh show.

Zippay will be an in-app service offered through the banks’ existing mobile banking apps and delivered by PayTech Nexi. Customers will be able to send, request, and split payments instantaneously by using the mobile number of their contacts who are also using the service.

"This is going to be a huge opportunity for bank customers to be able to instantly transfer cash account to account and potentially for businesses to do so in the future,” he said.

“It's a very positive investment that the banks have made and it's something that I suspect other entities will join."

He said that Nexi, the look-up service that provides the mobile numbers, is already in discussions with many other entities who are interested in joining.

"There's a big European push now to have a seamless instant payment experience," he said. "I think the market is going to go in a direction, a single payments system, across the next five to ten years in Europe and that's what the European Commission is pushing."