Fast-growing Revolut starts rolling out Irish IBAN numbers

Revolut has started to issue Irish IBANs.

Charlie Weston Twitter Email

March 13 2023 11:23 AM

CUSTOMERS of online bank Revolut are starting to receive Irish bank identification numbers in a move that is likely to mean more people in this country will conduct their day-to-day banking through the money app.

The fast-growing operation claims to have two million Irish customers.

Since last week, anyone opening a new Revolut account in Ireland has been allocated a new Irish IBAN (international bank account number), beginning with the letters “IE”.

The Irish IBAN should ensure that customers will no longer have difficulties having their salaries paid into their Revolut accounts or setting up direct debits.

Revolut said it is required to give its existing Irish customers two months’ notice of a change in account details.

Those existing customers will start getting their new Irish account details from the end of this month, it said.

Revolut said in a statement that by adding Irish IBANs to the existing deposit protection guarantee, Revolut has now ensured customers can use their Revolut account as their main bank account, but without the fees and charges required by other providers.

Chief executive of Revolut Europe Joe Heneghan said: “We had a fantastic reaction to the news that we would be offering IE IBANs to our Irish customers, so we were delighted to be able to start rolling out those account details to new customers.”

He recommended that that existing customers keep an eye out for an email over the coming weeks, about their new IBAN.

So-called “IBAN discrimination” has long dogged digital payment providers like Revolut as some Irish companies will not accept payments made to and from an account that uses a foreign IBAN.

Currently, Revolut customers in Ireland have a Lithuanian IBAN in their Euro bank account. Revolut IBANs start with the letters LT, whereas Irish ones start with IE.

This has meant that some employers or service providers have refused to accept an IBAN from a different country within the Single European Payments Area (SEPA).

By providing an Irish IBAN, this will no longer be a problem, Revolut said.

Revolut will migrate Irish customers to the Irish branch of Revolut Bank UAB, its European business, and replace their Lithuanian IBANs with Irish ones.
For a limited time, those customers will be able to accept payments to their old Lithuanian IBANs. However each time this happens they will be notified that they need to switch the payment to their Irish IBAN, as the Lithuanian one will be shut down.

Revolut recently launched a credit card in this market.

The move by the online bank represents the first time in years that there is a new competitor in the credit card market.

It comes after Revolut also recently launched a loans product, which it said has the lowest interest rate in the Irish market for loans under €20,0001.

It has a “buy-now, pay-later” product here called Pay Later.

The offer of credit cards, loans, buy-now, pay-later, and Irish IBANs means Revolut will be an even bigger threat to mainstream banks AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB.

They are already struggling to launch an instant payment app, to be called Yippay.

Revolut is popular as its app can make payments to another person or business in minutes, while its app is easy to use.