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Ireland’s biggest retail banks will launch a new joint payment solution in 2026, reviving a scrapped venture and riding the momentum of EU instant payments rules and the country’s modernisation drive.
AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB’s plans to launch a new person-to-person (P2P) mobile payments service, Zippay, in early 2026, mark a renewed effort by Ireland’s retail banks to upgrade their offerings to compete with non-bank challengers such as Revolut.
“Developed in response to customer feedback and demand, this will provide a quick and easy way to send and receive money or split bills with friends, family and contacts who are also Zippay users,” said Brian Hayes, chief executive of the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland.
“It will be delivered through customers’ existing mobile banking apps and therefore comes with all the same high levels of security, protection and digital safety and avoids the need for topping up a digital wallet or downloading a separate app.”
Learning from Synch’s failure
The move comes nearly two years after the same group of banks abandoned Synch Payments, a joint venture set up in 2020 to deliver a nationwide instant payments app, Yippay.
That project was wound down in late 2023 after a series of regulatory and operational setbacks. These included delays in competition clearance, the withdrawal of KBC Bank Ireland and the imposition of additional licensing requirements by the country’s central bank.
A key aim of the Zippay project is to take on Revolut, which has embedded itself in the Irish payments ecosystem to the extent that consumers use phrases such as “I’ll Revolut you” as the country moves away from cash.
Aligning with the national strategy
Another reason the Irish banks are acting now is government support, as exemplified by Ireland’s new National Payments Strategy (NPS), which launched in October last year.
As covered by Vixio, the NPS sets out plans to close a long-standing gap in the country’s payments infrastructure, with consumers currently lacking the ability to make direct account-to-account (A2A) payments without intermediaries such as card networks.
Backed by the EU’s Instant Payments Regulation, the strategy identifies open banking and instant payments as key enablers. It calls for greater consumer awareness of these options, while mandating working groups and regulators to drive progress.
Integrated approach
Unlike Synch, which was conceived as a standalone app, Zippay will be integrated directly into the banks’ existing mobile apps, meaning customers can use the service without downloading new software. More than 5m people are expected to be eligible from launch.
Zippay will be delivered in partnership with European PayTech giant Nexi, as was Synch, and will allow users to send, request and split payments instantly using only a recipient’s mobile number.
Each bank will provide details to customers in the coming weeks, including information on how to opt out, and a dedicated website has gone live.
For the banks, the service represents an attempt to regain ground in a payments market increasingly dominated by non-bank providers.
The failure of Synch highlighted the challenges of joint banking ventures, but executives will hope embedding Zippay into familiar apps will help avoid the pitfalls that led to their earlier effort being scrapped.
A European model for instant payments
The Irish banks are following the model being used by the European Payments Initiative’s (EPI) Wero solution in some countries, and the initiative represents another attempt to develop a native European instant payments service.
Time will tell whether the Irish scheme succeeds in taking on both existing payment options and instant payment challengers such as Revolut.
