Irish Banks Plan Mobile Payments System to Counter Revolut

Ireland’s three retail banks say they will introduce a mobile payment service next year.

Zippay, a joint collaboration by AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB, is set to debut in early 2026, the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI) announced Monday (Sept. 8).

According to the announcement, Zippay will be an in-app service provided through the lenders’ mobile banking apps, delivered by PayTech company Nexi. Users will be able to instantly send, request and split payments using the mobile number of contacts who are also on the service.

“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 at the BPFI.

“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.”

While the announcement never mentions the company by name, a number of reports on the launch note that Zippay will serve as an alternative to Revolut, the UK-based FinTech that is the most widely-used instant payments service in Ireland, with upwards of  three million customers within that country.

The planned launch of Zippay comes as mobile payments continue to grow in popularity around the world.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Pocket Revolution: How Mobile Wallets Are Changing Payments Worldwide” found that mobile wallets now power 35% of online transactions and 21% of in-store transactions across the 11 countries studied for the report.

“The shift reflects a change in the form factor — meaning the device or method used to make a payment — from traditional plastic cards to mobile interfaces, without altering the underlying funding sources like credit or debit cards,” PYMNTS wrote in July. “Instead, mobile wallets securely store and tokenize these familiar methods, offering a faster and safer way to pay.”

PYMNTS research found that although Generation Z leads in mobile wallet adoption and sets the pace for mobile-first payments, this trend is expanding across all generations, becoming increasingly age-agnostic. Mobile-first payments are gaining in popularity among millennials, Generation X and baby boomers, shifting from a trend among young people to one embraced by a cross-generational group of consumers.