Brexit pushes Boku to take out Irish payments licence

Though the US firm is listed in London, it has been forced to ‘change arrangements’ in order to shore up its EU operations

A payments licence is necessary for launching products such as e-wallets, which are needed for online shopping

Jonathan Keane

April 11 2021 02:30 AM

Boku, a US payments firm listed in London, has obtained a payments licence from the Central Bank of Ireland to support its European business and aid further product expansion.

The company develops mobile payment solutions that connect merchants and mobile operators for billing and identity verification.

A spokesperson for Boku said the company gained the licence to shore up its EU operations. It is also licenced in the UK.

“Boku is a global business, it has significant business in the EU and has had for a considerable time. Obviously since Brexit, there is a need to change arrangements – and this is an exercise to make sure that everything is robust in the EU,” the spokesperson said.

It added that the payments licence is necessary for launching or expanding certain new products – such as e-wallets for online shopping – that it has in the pipeline.

“The need for Boku to operate through licenced payment institutions is expected to increase,” Boku’s spokesperson said.

Boku has a number of offices dotted Europe supporting its operations. It has no major recruitment plans in Ireland, but it is hiring a fraud and risk analyst based in Dublin.

The company has also been heavily active in Asia of late, and said it is pursuing further licences in those markets.

It recently inked a mobile payments and ID partnership with Microsoft in South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

And last month in Japan, Boku launched a mobile payments service for DAZN – the sports streaming channel – in partnership with phone network NTT Docomo.

The company reported revenues of $56.4m in 2020 with a pre-tax loss of $17.3m attributed to impairment charges.