With 350 people attending in Croke Park on May 13, 2025, it reflected the growing number of fintech companies operating in Ireland – 280 indigenous fintech companies currently – and the scope for the future.
The chairman for the day was Jonathan Healy, Newstalk broadcaster, who mentioned how the event has everyone from the ecosystem, from “the person with an idea right up to the established businesses and the regulator”.
Derek F Butler, executive chairman of Grid Finance, made the welcoming statements, expressing his delight at seeing a full house for the second year in a row.
“It’s a real indication that the fintech ecosystem in Ireland is thriving,” he said. “Investment in the sector is up 300 per cent year-on-year and an amazing amount of positive activity is happening.”
The summit began properly with a keynote address from Mary-Elizabeth McMunn, deputy governor of financial regulation for Central Bank Ireland (CBI), who gave the CBI’s perspective on innovation and its experiences.
“One of the financial system’s core functions is to manage and take risks,” she said. “If regulators don’t accept risk and make risk-based decisions, the system doesn’t work.”
This set the groundwork for the first panel session of the day, which examined what Ireland needs to become a major hub and a destination for international fintech companies to thrive. This included Gareth Walsh, experienced fintech executive and board member of SumUp & Rippling, Louise Kelly, member services executive of Financial Services Ireland at Ibec; Paul Mortby, head of EMEA Policy at Block; and Siobhán Hanley, head of fintech and payments for IDA Ireland.
While work remains to develop the ecosystem needed for the next generation of fintech companies to thrive, Ireland has a strong base and is an appealing destination for many multinational companies.
“We have so many people familiar with regulatory, compliance, and banking for decades, but then we have a tech sector where Europe is second to none,” Hanley said.
“Fintech fits us squarely in the centre.”
The fireside chat with Peter Kerstens nicely complemented this. Kerstens is co-chair of the European Commission’s Taskforce on Fintech and adviser to the director-general for financial stability, financial services, and capital markets union at the EU Commission.
Chatting to Butler, he discussed the future of fintech policy, the EU’s approach to it and gave some advice on lobbying, saying to come in with proactive suggestions to help instead of criticising.
“If people in the industry come forward and say they want to come in and help solve problems, this is what we would like to see,” he stated. “[This can help] make regulations more effective and build the type of solutions we’re looking for, and have an impact.”
Trust and security
After returning from the networking sessions, the audience was brought back into the chats with a fireside discussion on artificial intelligence (AI) and its overlap with the economy.
Joining Healy on stage was Joann Stonier, fellow of data and AI at Mastercard, who gave a strong overview on the state of play for AI and the economy and in particular AI governance. A pertinent discussion for business leaders in the room.
“You need to understand that almost every organisation that comes to work with you needs to understand your security protocols,” she said.
“[They] will ask if you have some sense of your security requirements and if you can’t answer those questions, even investors are going to look at you a little sideways.”
Next was a panel discussion on achieving international scale and success, and the opportunities and challenges facing businesses.
This featured Anna Marie Turley, head of fintech, financial services and cybersecurity at Enterprise Ireland; Christopher Hutchings, head of risk and compliance at Creditsafe; John Cantwell, senior private equity manager at the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF); and Louise Hogan, senior associate for financial regulation at A&L Goodbody.
When asked what was the biggest challenge for those in the room, Turley mentioned several factors, including regulation and the cost of compliance, and touched upon another important element: trust.
“Other barriers exist around customers’ perception of security,” she said. “A lot of the fintech services are built on digital platforms and are open for cyberattacks, so we need that level of security and trust built in because customers are looking for trust, and that’s how companies scale. When they build that trust.”
It was then time for a fireside chat between Healy and John Byrne, CEO of Corlytics, which won the Outstanding Achievement Award in the National Fintech Awards 2024.
During the conversation, Byrne mentioned the importance of being in tune with your customers’ needs, whether it’s B2B or B2C.
“The customer is actually an economic buyer who you may never meet who basically has a business need and you have to get in-tune with what that is,” he said.
With the lunch break soon approaching, there was time for two more sessions, beginning with a panel discussion on the future of fintech transformation.
This featured Jac Dunne, CEO of Dimply; Michael Carr, CEO of Buen Crypto Consulting Ireland; and Pete Townsend, managing director of Techstars Web3.
Carr gave a succinct description of technology being successfully adopted when he said: “When people don’t realise they’re adopting a technology is when you realise that it has its most impact.”
Townsend mentioned the rise of stablecoins, whose value is tied to another asset, as having a potential future, saying that over the last few years, 75 to 80 per cent of transactions that take place on crypto exchanges are in stablecoin.
Before the lunch break, there was an analysis of fintech solutions used by businesses and the barriers facing adoption.
Journey together
Ciaran Burke, COO and co-founder of Swoop, took the stage and highlighted the difference in risk appetite between the UK and Ireland. Irish companies tend to be more conservative in nature when it comes to risk appetite for funding and tend to be more mature and later in their development before securing funding.
Following the lunch break and an engaging facilitated networking session, it was a return to discuss the future of banking and payments.
This panel discussion was moderated by Sinead Halhed-Moran Walsh, senior legal adviser and branch lead at Electronic Money Association (EMA). Joining her on stage were Simon McFeely, executive director and co-founder at Finvisor; Caroline O’Byrne, senior associate of financial regulation advisory at A&L Goodbody; Charles Dowd, co-founder of StrikeTip; and Colin Canny, COO of Paysend. McFeely pointed out that every firm is exposed to AI and is using it, even if they don’t realise it. “Don’t be afraid to set some internal basic guardrails, dos and don’ts, because no matter what business you’re in today, try to get ahead of it,” he said.
Teeing that up was a look into Wayflyer’s journey from startup to scale-up. Charlie Taylor, technology and innovation editor at the Business Post, was in conversation with Aidan Corbett, co-founder of Wayflyer, who mentioned the challenge of keeping the balance between improvement and consistent iterations.
“Systems break over time and anyone who’s started a company knows whatever you’ve built in the first nine months – to some degree – you will throw it away and start again,” he said. “We’re constantly re-engineering to allow for scale.”
The final panel session of the day looked at the balance between AI and cybersecurity and what needs to come next, a theme which underpinned a lot of the discussions throughout the day.
This panel featured Colum Lyons, CEO of IDPal; Glenda Deveney, head of partnerships and community for Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) UK and Ireland; and Niamh Vianney Muldoon, EMEA chief information security officer and innovation lead at BNY.
Deveney gave a rule she follows, stating that 80 per cent of regulations for cybersecurity are the same. If you stick to that, it’s much easier to keep on top of what measurements are required.
Before the day was out, the summit broke into four roundtable discussions.
The first one concerned the future of the National Fintech Hub led by Patrick Walsh, founder and CEO of Dogpatch Labs. The second roundtable looked at the future of MiCar (markets in crypto-assets regulation) with blockchain and cryptocurrency with Christopher Martin, the regulatory and legal working group at Blockchain Ireland.
The third roundtable was on scaling up and breaking into international markets. Gareth Walsh, an experienced fintech executive and board member at SumUp & Rippling, led the discussions. The final discussion examined the business credit score and how it impacts all elements of an SME’s growth potential, headed by Eoin Christian, CEO of Grid Finance. Butler concluded the summit, saying: “There’s a huge change happening. It’s not easy, but coming together like this helps make that journey that little bit easier and free.”