An Oireachtas finance committee meeting about the regulation of so-called neobanks on Wednesday was an extreme case of Hamlet without the prince. None of the four digital banks invited – Revolut, N26, Bunq and Monzo – sent representatives to answer questions from TDs and Senators.
It was up to the Central Bank of Ireland and the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland to lead the discussion.
In fairness to Revolut and Monzo, they at least responded to the committee, asking to attend a later meeting, potentially in January.
N26 and Bunq, on the other hand, appear to have effectively ignored the approach, with the former telling The Irish Times that it could not even confirm receipt of the invitation.
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A spokeswoman added that the fintech is “always open to constructive dialogue with policymakers”.
Just not in this instance, apparently.
Even getting a straight answer from some of the usually vocal digital banks proved enervating.
An external spokeswoman for Bunq said she did not “receive the requested information” from the company after The Irish Times put questions in on Tuesday morning. Revolut, meanwhile, proffered a polite no comment several hours after the deadline had passed.
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Radio silence of this kind contrasts sharply with their own marketing efforts. Ask any business journalist to show you their email inbox, and you’ll find it clogged with press releases from neobanks about various recent milestones and achievements.
There is no doubting the success of the digital challenger banks. A Revolut executive said earlier this week that the fintech had achieved 70 per cent market penetration in the Republic among the adult population. If accurate, that is an astonishing figure and illustrative of the gap that the neobanks have plugged in the Irish market against a backdrop of dwindling competition among pillar banks that have been slow on the digital uptake.
Maybe they can afford to be flippant with the public and its representatives when it comes to protecting those customers.
