Powering a new era of instant payments in Ireland
"If you keep coming back to what the customer experience should feel like, it helps guide every decision, even in a complex environment."
Donal Lehane, Partner, Deloitte Ireland.
We are a generation raised on one-click everything. We can order taxis at the touch of a button, stream content immediately, tap for takeout. We now also expect moving money to perform with the same speed and simplicity. It's one of the biggest behavioural and technological transformations the banking sector is facing in decades. Zippay is a response to this new landscape.
It's a payments system, launched in spring this year, that allows people to send and receive money in seconds, directly through their own banking app, using just a mobile number. What makes it interesting is what it took to get there.
"There is no need to switch platforms or download anything new," says Donal Lehane, Partner at Deloitte Ireland and leader of the team who worked on this project.
"It's a peer-to-peer platform available through the banking apps of AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB allowing you to send, request and split payments instantly using your mobile phone without leaving your existing banking environment. And critically, it's built on the security standards that customers expect and trust from their banks." Deloitte was engaged by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) to help lead the programme from strategy through to implementation.
"The programme has been years in the making, shaped by collaboration across the main retail banks, a payments technology partner, industry bodies and regulatory stakeholders. We've designed this as an open platform, and we anticipate new participants joining soon, further expanding the ecosystem."
It required careful alignment across different infrastructures and ways of working, as well as the discipline to move at pace while building something that customers can rely on.
Donal Lehane, Partner, Deloitte Ireland.
"We brought together multiple organisations and different systems, but for us, it was about staying focused on the outcome. If you keep coming back to what the customer experience should feel like, it helps guide the decisions, even in a complex environment. That's where Deloitte brings value, helping organisations navigate that complexity and move forward with confidence."
"We want to see innovation that enhances the overall resilience and trust in the financial ecosystem," says Sharon Brennan, BPFI Zippay Programme Lead, and Head of BPFI's Collaboration Office. "Zippay reflects strong collaboration across the industry, delivering a solution that is intuitive for customers while maintaining high standards of security and oversight. That is what supports long-term confidence. And with an exciting roadmap of innovation ahead, we're just getting started."
Alongside the delivery itself, Deloitte’s creative agency, ACNE, was also involved in shaping the experience. From the name and identity through to the user experience within banking apps, the website and the launch campaign. “The focus was on making something complex feel immediate and easy to understand from the first interaction,” explains John O'Connor from ACNE. “You simply open your banking app. You select a contact. The money is there. And before long, people are using it as a verb, telling one another, “I’ll Zippay you.”
