Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 7, to delete lines 13 to 21 and substitute the following:

“ “credit institution” means any of the following that provides, or offers to provide, current accounts in the State:

(a) the holder of a licence under section 9 of the Central Bank Act 1971;

(b) the holder of an authorisation under section 9A of the Central Bank Act 1971;

(c) a credit institution authorised and supervised by the competent authority of another Member State that carries on business in the State, by way of the establishment of a branch in the State, in accordance with the European Union (Capital Requirements) Regulations 2014 (S.I. No. 158 of 2014);

(d) a credit union registered as such under the Credit Union Act 1997;”.

The amendments in this group relate to the definitions in section 2. Amendment No. 1 changes the definition of a "credit institution" to insert a reference to the establishment of a branch for "credit institution[s] authorised and supervised by the competent authority of another Member State". This has been proposed for technical reasons to ensure such credit institutions report statistical information to the Central Bank in respect of their operations in Ireland.

Amendment No. 2 changes the definition of "current account" to refer to the lodgment and withdrawal of "funds", as the definition of "current account" in the Bill refers to the ability to deposit and withdraw cash. Some current accounts, such as those from Revolut and other online banks, do not offer a direct cash lodgment facility. Therefore, these accounts would not satisfy the definition as currently worded. While none of the online-only banks currently meet the quantitative criteria of the designated entities, there was never any intention to exclude them, and doing so would be likely to lead to further legal challenges on state aid and competition grounds. In addition, failure to address this issue could leave the legislation open to gaming. For instance, a designated entity could decide to no longer facilitate the depositing of cash in new current accounts. It has always been the policy intention that online current account providers would become designated entities if they satisfied the criteria regarding the shares of the current accounts and household deposits.

Amendment No. 3 is largely technical in nature and inserts a new definition of "funds" to ensure the proper functioning of the updated definition of "current account" in amendment No. 2. This definition of "funds" is as set out in EU Directive 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015, or the payment services directive. As part of this amendment, section 4 is proposed to be deleted, as the provisions of that section are no longer needed after the addition of a new section 48, which I will propose and discuss with amendment No. 8.

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