Central Bank of Ireland grants SumUp an e-money license

The Central Bank of Ireland, the country’s financial services regulator, has granted SumUp a license to issue e-wallets in Ireland and across Europe.

Founded in 2012, SumUp is a UK-based global payments service provider and a leading mobile point of sale (mPOS) company in the European market. However, its reach extends to 31 countries around the world, including the US and Brazil.

Backed by high-profile investors such as American Express and Groupon, the company’s trailblazing EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) mPOS system has proven to be an asset to thousands of global clients. SumUp also develops its own hardware, mobile apps, APIs and SDKs.

Helping businesses navigate COVID-19

With its newly acquired e-money license, the company hopes to assist Irish SMBs (small-medium businesses) that are struggling under the operational restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This assistance is needed now more than ever following the announcement in late October that the country is undergoing a second lockdown.

“Small businesses are the cornerstone of a healthy economy. Securing our licence during this critical time means that we can continue to empower those small businesses and help them succeed despite the challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic,” said Gareth Walsh, CEO Ireland at SumUp.

“Our core products allow our users to take remote and contactless card payments during lockdown situations, and so in a very real way, this licence will ensure Ireland’s entrepreneurs can keep trading and keep recovering.”

Fintech: leading the charge for recovery

The general recognition of SMBs’ importance to the world economy and the finance sector’s efforts to support them have represented an important shift in consciousness following the pandemic.

Moreover, fintech is demonstrating both its capacity and capability for finding solutions to imposing challenges that, perhaps, more traditional financial service providers cannot. Justin Knowles, Director of Digital and Payments at CitiBank, suggests that further collaboration between the two will be imperative in the long-term:

“I believe this pandemic has created an urgency for all financial services. I see two large factors that will play a part in the success or failure of anyone in this market. 1) Current employees’ ability to be agile - to work quickly and to adjust and modify the existing strategic plan. 2) Partnerships with fintech partners out there will also be key.”