Ireland is fast becoming a thriving hub for the global payments industry. We have the right experience, world class skills and are building a solid reputation globally for creating highly innovative payment businesses.
According to IDA Ireland there are 30 indigenous companies in operation
here, employing around 1600 people and producing over €225m in exports. Ireland has also attracted large global
payments brands such as MasterCard, PayPal and Elavon. The IDA states there are now 12 multinational
payment companies here employing around 3700 people.
Over the last few years we have seen a lot of new innovative solutions-
from payments technology to entirely new payment concepts. There are some
fantastic success stories emanating from this country!
Kerry
is a regional hothouse of payments innovation with Fexco and Monex. Set up in 1981, Fexco now employs 1800 people
globally offering Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), corporate payments and
global treasury solutions. Monex was
established in 1997, offering multi-currency pricing, DCC and cross border
acquiring solutions. Similarly
Continuum, another Irish-owned operation also offers DCC services from a Kerry
base.
Irish-owned
Realex, which was set up here over 10 years ago, already processes payments of
over €24 billion a year for 12,500 online retailers including Aer Lingus, Paddy
Power, Vodafone and Virgin Atlantic. It employs 160 people in offices in
Dublin, London and Paris. Colm Lyons,
founder, is now driving the company’s growth further by pushing into UK and
Europe by partnering with Elavon, to offer a gateway solution for online
retailers across Europe.
Sentenial, the Maynooth-based payments company providing technology for
other companies to ready themselves for the SEPA changeover, has recently announced
over 100 new jobs. These will be created
over the next 14 months, bringing the total workforce to 270.
OmniPay, a global payments processor, was founded in Dublin in
2000. Due to significant business
growth, this company also recently announced the creation of 30 new jobs at its
headquarters in Clonskeagh, Dublin, bringing its total workforce to almost 200
people over the next six months.
MasterCard
has now based its global innovation ‘hub’, MasterCard Labs, in Dublin with 200
people employed there. Similarly, Elavon
supports a variety of business lines globally through its 400-strong workforce
in Ireland. Paypal, set up in 2003, now employs over 2400 people at its Dublin
plant.
Neither
of these is Irish-owned but as with other examples in this industry offshoots
do develop so it will be interesting to see what emerges. Stripe, a new e-commerce tool for online
payments, offers an alternative online payment system to the likes of PayPal. Whilst
US based, it was founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison. Only two years old it has already secured thousands
of clients in the US and recently launched officially in Ireland with further
plans to expand into Europe.
There
are a number of Irish research institutes involved in ongoing research into
payments technology such as Centre for Cybercrime at UCD, the Computer Science
Centre at UCC and the Dependable Systems Unit at DCU where students are
developing more reliable software systems, examining security issues and exploring
mobile forensics.
It’s
not difficult to see why such companies would choose to set up here. Irish financial
regulation, whilst stringent, still serves the payments market in Europe
well. Ireland is signatory to the
European Payments Services Directive and e-Money directive and is a member of
SEPA. This is undoubtedly an attractive aspect for any interested US or
European business
Equally,
government enterprise bodies offer employment grants and favourable tax credits
to companies who set up here.
With
regards to innovation on the Irish front, the Irish Payments Services
Organisation (IPSO) doesn’t directly call out their thoughts on fostering
innovation. Instead they reference the
goals expressed by the National Payments Plan (NPP). These NPP goals revolve largely around changing
the focus, usage and adoption rates of newer payment technologies rather than
listing any specific goals to attract or foster investment in new payments
providers or payments innovation.
Surely
this is a strategic gap which needs to be filled?
IDA
Ireland however bills Ireland as ‘the location of choice for international payments
firms’ and is promoting Ireland as having a strong capability in DCC, PCI
compliance, prepaid cards and payment processing platforms. The payments market in Ireland offers rich
opportunities to start up, scale and grow new businesses with a truly
international focus.
It
is important that we do more to foster indigenous enterprise rather than
focusing all our efforts on attracting multinationals. Investment in research and education, a focus
at national level by bodies such as IPSO and incentives to set up at a local
level will certainly help.
This
way we can ensure we continue to strengthen our payments knowledge and
technology enabling us to retain and grow our global reputation in this area.
Sources include: Government’s Action Plan for Jobs 2013 http://www.djei.ie/publications/2013APJ_Annex.pdf, Irish
Independent, IDA Ireland
