PaymentSense, which provides merchants with card terminals for contactless payments, already has a presence in Ireland.

But should it succeed with its licence application, it would be able to expand its service offering to cover e-money services joining the likes of Stripe, Square and SumUp. Furthermore, it would be allowed to offer these services anywhere within the EU or EEA based on passportiong rules. 

PaymentSense currently acts as an intermediary for Icelandic payments provider Valitor, which is already regsitered in Ireland as an e-money institute and was recently acquired by Israeli startup Rapyd. 

The move will bring more competition to the Irish payments market at a time when a reported 134% rise in card processing fees has caused several companies to speak out. 

Irish building supplies firm HPC recently complained that its card payment charges had risen by 130% to over €400,000 in the last 12 months.