← Back to regulators

🇮🇪Ireland · EU member

Central Bank of Ireland

CBI · Central bank
Activity Index
74/ 100

FY2025 · as of 31 December 2025Published figures unless marked

Employees~2,200FY2025Estimate
Annual budget€340MFY2025Estimate
Supervised entitiesSee the breakdown belowFY2025

Overview

The Central Bank of Ireland is one of a few European regulators that publish a full authorisation ledger — applications received, withdrawn, approved and average processing days, for every sector, every year. Its 2025 edition shows both faces of Dublin: fund authorisations up 40% with every service standard met, while payment and e-money applicants waited an average of 763 days. In MiCAR's first year it authorised ten crypto-asset service providers in an average of 171 days — and licensed the first new Irish bank since 2019. Everything below is the Central Bank's own data, from its Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report 2025.

Regulated sectors

8
BanksPayment institutionsE-money institutionsCrypto-asset service providersInvestment firmsAsset managersInsurance companiesCredit institutions

Figures as published by Central Bank of Ireland for FY2025. Source: Authorisations and Gatekeeping Report 2025 (3rd edition, June 2026). Data as of 31 December 2025. Supplementary: Annual Report 2025.

Leadership

2
Gabriel Makhlouf

Governorsince 2019

Mary-Elizabeth McMunn

Deputy Governor, Financial Regulationsince 2025

Full board

Authorisations 2025

Applications received, withdrawn, approved, and the average number of calendar days to decision.

Investment funds (products)
934 / 97 / 975 / 91Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Retail intermediaries / debt mgmt
186 / 67 / 149 / 105Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Payment & e-money institutions
9 / 2 / 4 / 763Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Crypto-asset service providers (MiCAR)
11 / 0 / 10 / 171Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
MiFID investment firms
9 / 6 / 6 / 245Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Insurance
8 / 1 / 8 / 21Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Fund service providers
11 / 2 / 7 / 254Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Credit institutions
3 / 0 / 1 / 355Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Trust or company service providers
5 / 0 / 5 / 55Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Retail credit / credit servicing
1 / 2 / 7 / 76Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Prospectus approvals
658 / 9 / 649 / 15Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
MiCAR Title II whitepaper notifications
305 / 0 / 305 / 5Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days
Fitness & Probity (all PCF applications)
3,032 / 418 / 2,684 / 50Received / Withdrawn / Approved / Avg days

Processing-time trend

FY2025

Average calendar days to decision, three-year view.

Investment funds
98 / 88 / 912023 / 2024 / 2025
Retail intermediaries
169 / 119 / 1052023 / 2024 / 2025
MiFID investment firms
327 / 256 / 2452023 / 2024 / 2025
Payment & e-money institutions
614 / 688 / 7632023 / 2024 / 2025
Crypto-asset service providers
— / — / 1712023 / 2024 / 2025
Insurance
31 / 21 / 212023 / 2024 / 2025

Notable 2025

Fund authorisations
654 UCITS, 26 RIAIFs and 6 retail ELTIFs authorised — 40% above 2024; QIAIFs up 32% at 281
MiCAR year one
Ten CASPs authorised, eight of them former VASP registrants; a streamlined payment-institution process reuses CASP application material under the EBA's MiCAR/PSD2 No Action Letter
First Irish-domiciled credit institution since 2019
Authorised in 355 days
PI/EMI sector at year-end
58 authorised firms holding ~€11.8bn in safeguarded funds; 13 firms in the pre-application pipeline, up from six
New Gatekeeping Decisions Committee
Decided its first three cases: two authorisation refusals and one involuntary revocation, with no appeals
Fitness & Probity
97% of assessments completed within 90 days; first-ever PCF refusal; interviews halved to 26 as the post-Enria single-interview model bedded in

Key legislation

3
Central Bank Act 1942 (as amended)

Foundational Act

European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018

PSD2 transposition

European Union (Markets in Crypto-Assets) Regulations 2024

MiCA implementation

Registers, portals and publications

Data as of 31 December 2025 · Source: www.centralbank.ie (authority website) + ComplyBridge researchActivity Index methodology →