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Press Release

The Central Bank of Ireland grants Modulr an EMI licence

14/12/22 update: Please note, As part of our expansion strategy and focus on The Netherlands as our European hub, we’ve decided to consolidate our Irish entity with our Dutch entity which is licensed by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) as an electronic money institution. As a result, we’re handing back our licence to the Central Bank of Ireland. We will continue to serve our clients across the EEA through our Netherlands hub and licence from DNB. We will also continue our local presence in Ireland through an Irish branch. Please visit here for more information.

 


  • The European arm of Modulr has been established to provide services to customers across the European Union
  • Modulr will drive instant payments expertise into the Eurozone, to radically transform wholesale and commercial payments
  • Powering the payments infrastructure of Sage, Revolut, Mode and Iwoca, Modulr’s European ambitions are hotly anticipated by the European software businesses to enable payment capabilities for their customers

Dublin, Ireland, 20th October 2020.

UK and Ireland-based FinTech Modulr has today announced it has secured an electronic money institution (EMI) licence from the Central Bank of Ireland for its Dublin-based entity, Modulr FS Europe Limited (638002), (hereafter referred to as Modulr Europe).

Modulr Europe was granted an EMI licence by the Central Bank of Ireland and plans to provide services to customers across the European Union.

Following strong business growth in the UK over the past four years, the newly granted EMI licence will enable the FinTech to offer an extensive suite of payments products, including its award-winning payments platform, through its powerful API to EU markets.

The team at Modulr also brings its significant expertise of real-time payments to SEPA Instant, the euro’s instant payments scheme. Modulr will draw on its experience of Faster Payments to unlock the potential of the new scheme by providing efficient access for European software companies, merchants, specialist banks and more.

The true potential of a digital API-led alternative to commercial payments will rely upon an agile and efficient ‘behind the scenes’ payments process, which has historically been inaccessible and unaffordable to SMEs and enterprise alike. This information comes from soon to be published research commissioned by Modulr, which reveals contemporary insight not only into the hard cost of payment processes but the hidden impact on customer experience as well.

Myles Stephenson, Chief Executive, Modulr comments: “We are delighted to have been granted an EMI licence by the Central Bank of Ireland. The opportunity for a digital alternative to commercial and wholesale transaction banking is significant as software businesses across multiple industry sectors are identifying the need to deliver new functionality and efficiencies to their customers by embedding payments in customer journeys. We plan to build a truly digital, frictionless payments infrastructure for software platform partners to provide new payment experiences to more than 500m people.

“We believe that our depth of experience in digital payments and API integration makes us the perfect partner for European businesses seeking to transform the way they make, receive and manage payments. Traditional banks face clear challenges in making embedded payments a reality via developer-friendly and seamless APIs.”

John Irwin, General Manager, Modulr Europe comments: “The granting of the licence is a significant milestone for Modulr’s European operations in Dublin and ambitions for the European market. Our digital platform and experience can transform the payments business. For too long, European payments have relied on the same technologies.

“We look forward to automating payment flows, embedding payments within customers platforms and enabling them to focus on their core business. This will shore up the hidden inefficiencies prevalent in many payment processes today making payments a competitive advantage.”

Modulr has moved over £40bn for customers including Sage, Revolut and Paxport through its platform which has an uptime of 99.999%.

Modulr provides this scale, reliability, and premium service by investing in its own financial access and achieving principal and direct access to critical payments infrastructure where possible.

ENDS


About Modulr

Modulr is the Payments as a Service API platform for digital businesses. It integrates into any product or system. Modulr’s new type of payment accounts are built for businesses that need a faster, easier and more reliable way to move money. Businesses can automate payment flows, embed payments into their platforms and build entirely new payment products and services themselves. All managed in real-time, 24/7 from one API.

Modulr’s API makes it easy for businesses to streamline existing services, launch new products and scale more efficiently.

Modulr FS Europe Limited (638002) is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as an Electronic Money Institution.

Modulr Finance Limited (FRN 900699) is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as an EMD Agent of Modulr FS Limited (FRN 900573). Modulr FS Limited is an Authorised Electronic Money Institution, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

For further information - please visit www.modulrfinance.com

 

For Press Enquiries

David Beach | Head of Content & PR | david.beach@modulrfinance.com

Jack Ferris | Octopus Group | modulr@octopusgrp.com

About Modulr
Modulr has grown to become the leading provider of embedded payments to organisations across the UK and Europe. Embedded payments is a new category that permits payments to become part of organisations’ technology stack, upgrading them to become payments companies themselves. Modulr enables hundreds of enterprise customers and thousands of SME customers to embed account creation, payment out, reconciliation of payment in, card issuing and many open banking and similar features into their own business process flows via API calls and webhooks into Modulr’s cloud platform. Core to Modulr’s success has been the platform itself, Modulr’s regulatory status as an EMI in the UK and Europe, its connections to payments and other financial service schemes, its ability to operate at scale, and its compliance rigour. Today Modulr handles over £100bn of annualised payment volume and its platform handles on average 30 API calls per second.

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