Revolut Payments Ireland Ltd
2 Dublin Landings
North Dock
Dublin D01 V4A3
30th July, 2020
Damien English TD
Minister of State
Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation
Cc: MInister Michael McGrath
Senator Pat Casey
By email
Dear MInister,
I am writing with regard to plans announced for the government’s Stay&Spend initiative, which
aims to encourage Irish people to staycation by allowing them to claim a tax credit of up to €125
on food and accommodation bills incurred in the State.
In particular, we note that the system by which this initiative will be rolled out involves using a
new App; and that customers will take a picture of their receipt, which they will then send to the
Revenue Commissioners using the App in order to claim the relevant credit.
The reason for Revolut contacting you is that this functionality mirrors almost exactly the
functionality currently offered to users of Revolut’s app. A key feature of Revolut is that card
users can take a photo of receipts and send them to their accounts department using the App
so as to reclaim expenses.
This system is so similar to the Stay&Spend app proposal that we felt we should get in touch to
see if we can discuss ways in which we might assist with the project. This could potentially
involve technical assistance on developing the functionality; linking Revolut to the Stay&Spend
system so that Revolut customers could reclaim the tax credit using their Revolut app; or
possibly even rolling out the system on behalf of the State, perhaps as a pilot programme.
We believe that involving Revolut could have a number of advantages, including:
● The technical know-how of having built similar functionality
● Strong know-your-customer (KYC) systems which would potentially help prevent abuse
of the system
● Instant data on uptake of the initiative
● The ability, if appropriate, to deliver cashback direct to consumers rather than relying on
tax credits which might take many months to show up in customers’ pockets
We would be very grateful if it were possible to have an early discussion with those tasked with
delivering this initiative to assess whether Revolut might be able to assist with its delivery in any
way. As you may know, Revolut already has more than 1million adult customers in the State,
and 75% of these are over the age of 25 indicating they are likely to have accumulated savings
during the lockdown which could now be encouraged to be spent. We have the ability to
limit/monitor spending by Merchant Category Code, helping reduce abuse; and we have the
ability to create instant virtual cards which people could use as soon as they have registered
with Revolut, rather than waiting for delivery of their physical debit card. We have also provided
high-frequency consumer spending data to various State organisations including the
Department of Finance, which has published two official reports using this information,
indicating the level of management information we can make available to monitor performance
of the scheme on a real-time basis.
Please let me know if I can be of any assistance in developing this discussion with the
appropriate teams.
Yours sincerely,
Sebastian
Sebastian Hamilton
Head of Public Affairs, Ireland
Revolut
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