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Revolut Users In Ireland to Get Irish IBAN This Year

The accounts of Revolut customers in Ireland are to be migrated over to an Irish IBAN number in the coming months, the online bank has said.

It follows the decision of the company to set up an Irish branch of its European business, Revolut Bank UAB, and begin migrating customers here to it.

The move should enable Irish based users to send and receive money more easily, because until now they have had a Lithuanian IBAN for their accounts.

However, the migration will require them to inform employers, social welfare payment providers, direct debit originators such as utility companies and others who make payments into or receive payments from their accounts using an IBAN of the new number.

If they don’t, they will run the risk of payments not going through as planned.

The development comes at a time when the banking system and direct debit originators are already struggling with the fallout of departures of Ulster Bank and KBC, which have forced hundreds of thousands of people to set up new bank accounts and rearrange their payments.

Joe Heneghan, CEO Revolut Europe, said, “we’re proud to be opening our Irish branch soon. We recommend that our customers keep an eye out for an email from us over the coming weeks, as we roll out the IBAN migration of our customers in Ireland.”

Revolut is to begin sending those emails to its customers in Ireland this week explaining how the changeover will work. They will be given two months’ notice that their accounts are to move, with the IBAN transfers set to take place in phases. Once the changes have taken place, the customers’ Irish IBANs will replace the Lithuanian one.

The development is taking place because until now some customers of Revolut in Ireland had been discriminated against by certain organisations because they have a Lithuanian IBAN.

This had led certain employers or other providers of services to refuse to accept an IBAN from a different country, which meant many Revolut users also needed a traditional bank account.

The move, though potentially problematic for some customers, could once complete make Revolut more attractive as a primary banking service for many people.

Daragh Cassidy, from Bonkers.ie, said, “with the upcoming exits of Ulster Bank and KBC, increased competition in the Irish banking sector is more important than ever and today’s news will hopefully help increase that. A Revolut account isn’t perfect of course. There is no overdraft and it’s generally not suitable for those who prefer to use cash over card payments. And there are still issues with people getting wrongly frozen out of their accounts (for suspected fraud or money laundering) and then having trouble contacting someone to get the account unlocked.”

In late 2021, Revolut was granted an e-money licence by the Central Bank of Ireland.

But it decided not to use it and instead chose to operate its banking operations here under a full banking licence granted by the European Central Bank over a year ago.

As a result, Revolut said its Irish branch will employ a small number of senior staff who will be responsible for its operations in the country.

Source: RTÉ

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