Facebook is entering the payments market: the social network has been granted an e-license by the Bank of Ireland, according to financial portal «Cointelegraph». This gives California-based Facebook free access to social payments such as peer-to-peer (P2P) services.

Because Ireland is part of the European Union, the license translates to a Europe-wide passport. Much like Facebook has done in the U.S., payment services can be docked onto the network’s messenger app. This means that Facebook can keep pace with Europe’s P2P service providers, the site portal concludes.

In Switzerland, the domestic payment app Twint, which is backed by a large portion of the country’s financial providers, is also expected to provide P2P services when it launches next year.

Threat for Incumbents

The competition is a major threat for incumbent payment services in Europe. Apple launched Apple Pay in Switzerland and elsewhere last year. The world’s most widely-used payment service, Alipay, is also expected to be available across Europe from next year, as finews.com reported.

The Chinese e-commerce provider’s most important partner domestically is Swiss stock exchange operator SIX, while Facebook is still reliant on bank accounts for its P2P service.
The outlook for incumbent payment services is bleak should the upstarts manage to wedge themselves between banks and consumers.

The biggest fear of traditional bankers: banking will always be required, but not necessarily banks.

Flouting Brexit with U.K. Move

Facebook is underpinning its European ambitions with a forceful expansion: the social network plans to create 500 new jobs in the U.K. along, as «The Telegraph» and other media reported. Rival Google plans a new London headquarter where is expects to employ roughly 3,000 people by 2020.

The moves comes as Swiss banks and other foreign finance players are mulling a partial exit from the City of London following the Brexit vote – which can be read purely a coincidence, or an omen for the financial services industry.