Modulr scores European electronic money institution licence through Central Bank of Ireland partnership

The move opens up Modulr’s market potential to the whole of the European Union.

European expansion is on the cards (pun intended) at payments provider Modulr, which has secured a European electronic money institution (EMI) licence which gives it the potential to market its services across the whole of the EU.

The licence was granted by the Central Bank of Ireland to Modulr’s Dublin-based entity, Modulr FS Europe, the fintech’s European operations.

It means Modulr can now plan to provide real-time payments facilitated by modern APIs, which it already does in the UK for the likes of Sage, Revolut, Iwoca and Paxport.

“We plan to build a truly digital, frictionless payments infrastructure for software platform partners to provide new payment experiences to more than 500m people,” said CEO Myles Stephenson.

“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.”

Leading the new European push is John Irwin, now general manager of Modulr Europe in Dublin.

Earlier this year in May Modulr became one of the few fintechs to raise cash during lockdown, with a £18.9m round led by Highland Europe, existing investor Frog Capital and partner Blenheim Chalcot.

Prior to that, the fintech made headlines in 2019 after receiving £10m as part of the Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) Pool C, with a pledge to boost payment services for SMEs.

UPDATE 2020-10-22 - An earlier version of this story incorrectly refered to the "Bank of Ireland", this should have been the Central Bank of Ireland.