The Central Bank of Ireland has reportedly shared a new multi-year payments strategy following concerns that banking institutions are not actually taking advantage of the opportunities made available through instant payments.
While at the BPFI National Payments Conference, Vasileios Madouros, the Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Ireland stated that following the previous National Payments Plan, a little over ten years back, there have been considerable developments and innovation in local payments. However, there are also key areas where Ireland continues to lag behind others.
Madouros said:
“Consumers having greater access to payment solutions is dependent on the market grasping the opportunities available. Despite the instant payments infrastructure being available since 2017, material providers of payment accounts in Ireland have not implemented it. For consumers and businesses, this is an unsatisfactory outcome.”
An attempt by Ireland‘s banking institutions to introduce their own mobile app solution for merchants for instant account-to-account payments for POS and e-commerce transactions was suspended this past year after being outpaced by a fast-evolving payments sector.
In order to overcome challenges, the Central Bank of Ireland has presented four high-level priorities all the way to the end of 2030.
The first of these calls on banking institutions to ensure that Irish consumers and small businesses are able to benefit from payment innovations that are available in other areas across Europe and that emerging payment solutions may be integrated with Europe and interoperable with other jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, cash should be easily available and also widely accepted as a form of payment, and this choice/preference may be safeguarded for the benefit of both consumers and businesses.
The other two priorities primarily focus on maintaining resilience along with security in payments and embedding research and analytical insights to better inform/guide policy decisions.
In summary, DG Madouros concluded:
“Many of the benefits of technology in relation to payments for domestic consumers and the broader economy remain untapped. The National Payments Strategy offers an opportunity to take a longer-term view and develop a coherent, system-wide approach to the future evolution of payments in Ireland, within a European context.”