Realex Fire Officially Launched

Irish payments provider, Realex Payments, has launched their new personal payments service “Realex Fire“.

Conn and I had spoken about the service a couple of times over the last year when it was still known as CaraPay.

Here’s the official announcement:

With an ambition to transform the way people and businesses are paid, Realex takes a major step and brings its Realex Fire personal account out of beta in the Republic of Ireland.

Realex Financial Services Limited, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and a wholly owned subsidiary of Realex Payments has taken its Realex Fire personal account out of beta. With a mission to address some fundamental problems in the payments industry and to transform the way people and businesses pay and get paid, the company has been working on the product for several years.

Realex Fire is a new style of bank account, enabling users to lodge and withdraw funds, create a circle of people to pay, send and receive payments, operate multiple accounts and get notifications on Facebook. At a time when traditional banks are re-introducing transaction fees, the Realex Fire personal account is free of transaction charges.

The Realex Fire personal account is like a bank account and more:

Opening an account is completed online and users can transfer funds from other bank accounts. Once the first account is opened, more accounts can be added allowing better management of personal finances.
Using email addresses or mobile numbers, users can invite people to their “circle” – the people they pay.
Users may also view the people who pay them and request payments for specific amounts.
All Realex Fire payments are processed in real time, with no transaction fees for personal users.
By linking a Facebook profile to the account, users can receive private notifications when they get paid or receive a payment request.
A mobile app, giving users access anytime and place is currently being beta tested and will be available shortly.

Speaking on the announcement, Realex Fire Founder and CEO, Colm Lyon said “it’s time for change, real change, in the way people and businesses pay and are paid. We want to fundamentally transform the payments landscape and make payments safer, more accessible, social and less expensive to process. That is our mission. This is a significant milestone for us and marks a fundamental change in the payments landscape; as a regulated entity we have joined the banking networks so we can create the most complete and compelling payments products”.

“We are delighted to have reached this milestone and phenomenally excited about our future plans. In many ways, what we see today is the base upon which we will build the payment applications of the future”, Colm concluded.

The company aims to make payments more social, safe, accessible, mobile and less expensive than current payment methods. To achieve this, Realex Financial Services secured a licence under the Payment Services Directive in 2010 and has since joined the Irish and Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) clearing systems or banking networks. It is one of the first (Payments Institutions) non-banks to join such networks.