Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This has been a very interesting meeting. The discussion on crypto was particularly fascinating. I have heard friends talking about crypto and have listened nervously sometimes.

I will start with a question on Revolut. The Central Bank may be aware of a scam that some people fell foul of before Christmas involving Revolut. Obviously that is a matter for An Garda Síochána rather than the Central Bank. We know that more and more people are using Revolut as their main bank and Revolut is now issuing international bank account numbers, IBANs, to its Irish customers. In ordinary retail banking, a lot of the services that had been provided previously are becoming less available in the context of the reduced physical presence of banks. In the context of Revolut having such a strong influence on the market at the moment, is it time to introduce a regulation whereby operators of a banking licence here are obliged to have some kind of physical presence? One of the issues to note with regard to the aforementioned scam - again, I know it is a Garda matter and I am not asking the Central Bank to comment on it - is the fact that when the people affected were trying to speak to somebody in Revolut, their only option was a chatbot and that was incredibly frustrating for them. Given that Revolut is becoming such a big presence here, is there a need for a regulation in that regard?