Dutch digital bank Bunq to create 17 jobs in Ireland as part of global expansion

The bank is hiring across all its offices, including its headquarters in Amsterdam and its locations in Dublin, Sofia, Istanbul, Munich, Paris, Madrid, London, and New York City.

Last year, the chief executive of Bunq told the Irish Examiner of his plans to expand in Ireland while attending Web Summit in Lisbon last year.

Ali Niknam previously said the sweet spot for Bunq was when Ulster Bank and KBC had first halted banking operations in the Republic, but the Irish market remained on his radar.

“We have looked at the Irish market and it’s very interesting because it’s very underserved,” said Mr Niknam at the time.

“When Ulster Bank pulled out we kind of missed that opportunity because we were too slow to respond,” he said.

Earlier this year, Bunq announced plans to roll out its travel insurance offering for customers in the Republic, in a bid to enter the global insurance market.

Bunq said it had “set its sights on Ireland” with its new offering, as its user base in the Republic nearly doubled in the last financial year and the firm reported a surge in deposits, up 114% since the start of 2024.

There has been a recent frenzy of activity among the leading three banks in the Republic to remain attractive to customers as challengers enter the market.

In 2021, Bunq bought CapitalFlow, a Dublin-based business lender that works with small firms and property investors.

The following year, it provided Irish-based customers international bank account numbers for the first time.