Ireland's three pillar banks - AIB, Bank of Ireland, and Permanent TSB - launched Zippay on March 10, 2026, a phone-number-based instant person-to-person payment service that fills one of the last major gaps in eurozone domestic mobile payments.
Zippay is powered by Nexi's technology platform and runs on the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) infrastructure, settling payments in seconds around the clock. Users can send up to EUR 1,000 per day and request up to EUR 500, using mobile phone numbers as identifiers instead of IBANs.
How It Works
Rather than launching as a standalone app, Zippay is integrated directly into each bank's existing mobile banking application. Customers of AIB, Bank of Ireland, and PTSB can access the service within the apps they already use, with enrolment set to opt-out by default. This gives the service immediate access to approximately 5 million retail banking customers across the three institutions.
The infrastructure choice is significant. By building on SCT Inst rails through Nexi's platform, Zippay benefits from the pan-European instant payment infrastructure that the ECB's TIPS settlement engine supports, rather than requiring a bespoke domestic clearing system.
Strategic Context
Zippay represents a strategic pivot for Ireland's banking sector. The three pillar banks had previously attempted to build a joint payment venture through Synch Payments, but that initiative collapsed in late 2023. The decision to embed Zippay within existing bank apps rather than develop a separate application reflects lessons learned from that failure and follows a model proven successful across other European markets.
Ireland was one of the last major eurozone economies without a domestic instant P2P mobile payment overlay comparable to Swish in Sweden, Vipps in Norway, MobilePay in Denmark, or Bizum in Spain. The launch brings Ireland into line with its European peers at a time when the EU Instant Payments Regulation is making SCT Inst the default rail across the single market.
The service also arrives as Revolut and other fintechs have established strong positions in Irish domestic P2P payments. Zippay gives the incumbent banks a unified response to that competitive pressure.
What Comes Next
The Banking and Payments Federation Ireland confirmed that Zippay will be opened to credit unions and other financial institutions on a non-discriminatory basis, potentially extending coverage beyond the pillar banks' existing customer base. The timeline for this broader rollout has not been specified.
For the wider European instant payments landscape, Ireland's launch further validates the SCT Inst and TIPS infrastructure as a foundation for domestic overlay services - a trajectory that aligns with the ECB's vision for pan-European instant payment interoperability.