Central Bank of Ireland payment statistics: PSQ, PSS, PSR

Central Bank of Ireland payment statistics are the returns an Irish payment or e-money institution files about the market rather than about itself, and most firms underestimate how many of them they owe. The content comes from Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 (ECB/2013/43), as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/2011 (ECB/2020/59). The Central Bank decides how it is collected: a quarterly return (PSQ), a semi-annual return (PSS) for full reporters, a reduced semi-annual return (PSR) for derogated institutions, and a monthly card return (PSM) for domestic card issuers. They are XML, not XBRL, and since 2022 they also carry Ireland’s semi-annual payment fraud data.

1. The European layer and the Irish layer

The amending Regulation ECB/2020/59 was published on 11 December 2020. Its Article 2 makes the reporting population payment service providers, including electronic money issuers, and payment system operators. Article 3(1) requires each reporting agent to report to the national central bank of the member state where it is resident, following the content in Annex III and the minimum standards in Annex IV. Article 6(2) requires each NCB to set clear deadlines for its reporting agents that let it meet the ECB transmission dates in Article 6(1).

The Central Bank of Ireland publishes its implementation under Payment Service Providers › ECB Payment Statistics Regulation Update; its FAQ notes that implementation is national while the requirements are standard across the euro area. The European mechanics are in the ECB payment statistics regulation; this piece is the Irish layer.

2. The four returns, by code

The Central Bank’s reporting instructions package (Version 9) and its 2026 schedule of dates identify four payment-statistics returns in the Payment Service Providers block:

The Bank’s technical note splits the collection into 15 dataset structure definitions (PCT credit transfers, PDD direct debits, PEM e-money, PCP cards, PIS payment initiation, PLB fraud losses by liability bearer, PMC MCC data and others), with counts in whole units and values in euro to two decimals. Headline PAY totals are computed by the Bank from the detailed series.

3. Deadlines: the 2026 schedule and the next ones due

The Central Bank’s 2026 schedule of dates for receipt of returns sets the following due dates for the payment-statistics family. The technical note describes the standard timeliness as 20 working days for quarterly data and two months for semi-annual data.

Compare the European ceiling: January–June data reaches the ECB by the last working day of November, but the Central Bank wants your PSS by end-August. Plan against the Irish schedule, which is republished each year.

4. Who is in the Irish reporting population

Annex III, Part 1.3, of the amended Regulation defines the national population. It covers PSPs incorporated and located in the territory, including subsidiaries of parent companies located elsewhere and branches of institutions whose head office is outside the territory. Cross-border consolidation is not permitted, and an Irish branch treats its head office and sister branches elsewhere in the euro area as residents of those states. All places of business one foreign institution sets up in Ireland form a single branch (Annex I).

That gives three practical positions for a payment or e-money firm:

• Irish-authorised PI or EMI. It is in the population and files on its own behalf, covering all its payment transactions, domestic and cross-border, in one XML per return. The Bank’s FAQ confirms one file with a country breakdown.
• Irish branch of an institution authorised elsewhere in the EEA. It is in the Irish population as a branch, and its activity is reported in Ireland, not consolidated into the head office’s home-country return.
• Cross-border services with no Irish establishment. It is not resident in Ireland, so on the Regulation’s residence test the activity is reported to the NCB where the provider is resident.

Outsourcing does not move the obligation: the FAQ says the reporting agent still reports outsourced transactions, and the provider or agent should not, to avoid double counting.

5. The derogation in Ireland: a list, not an application

Article 4 of the amended Regulation lets NCBs grant derogations to payment institutions and e-money institutions that meet the small-institution conditions of PSD2 Article 32(1)–(2) or EMD2 Article 9(1)–(2), regardless of whether they actually hold a waiver. The firms that could benefit must together stay within 5% of national value per listed service and cumulatively, and the burden must be disproportionate. Derogated agents still report Tables 4b and 5b (Article 4(4)). Review is annual, with effect from the second following calendar year (Article 4(5)).

The Irish application has three features:

• You cannot apply. The Bank’s FAQ says firms cannot apply for a derogation. The Bank assesses eligibility from submitted data against the Article 4 criteria and publishes the outcome as the Reduced Reporters – Institution List.
• There is no full exemption. The list’s read-me states that derogated institutions file reduced requirements, the PSR, and that no full derogation exists.
• Check the list itself. The published list (last updated 1 February 2024 when we checked) shows every entry as a credit union. A payment or e-money institution not on that list is a full reporter and owes the PSQ and PSS.

6. Fraud data travels inside the PSS

Ireland merged two collections. Until reference period 2021 H2, the Central Bank collected PSD2 fraud data through a separate Excel return (PFD), alongside the old annual payment statistics return (PSA). The Bank’s FAQ confirms that from 2022 H1 onwards both were combined into a single XML collection under the amended Regulation. Fraud data is collected semi-annually only.

The Central Bank’s published payment fraud statistics cite the PSS as their source and describe the population as Irish-resident PSPs, including payment and e-money institutions. Your Table 5a or 5b figures are therefore the published Irish fraud dataset. Build them from the same fraud event store and definitions as your PSD2 Article 96(6) fraud view, and document any legitimate differences.

7. Filing mechanics, validation and revisions

The published instructions describe XML upload to the Bank’s online reporting system against published XSDs. Each file is named C-code_YYYYMMDD_RET.xml (or .zip): the institution’s C-code, the last day of the reference period (not the submission date), and the return code PSQ, PSS or PSR. The instructions name the legacy Online Reporting System (ONR); because the Bank has been moving returns to the Central Bank Portal, confirm the current channel with paystats before your first deadline. The rules in the instructions and the Bank’s validation briefing:

1. Upload checks in three levels. File name, type and size; XSD conformance; then pre-submission validation rules (linear and consistency checks). Validation stops after 50 errors, so one systematic mistake can hide the rest.
2. Only non-zero data points. Omit nil items. If you have nothing to report for a period you still upload a nil return using the template in the instructions package.
3. Domestic is W2, not IE. The FAQ requires Irish-counterpart transactions under area code W2, with no data reported against IE.
4. No sign-off by the firm. A paystats team member locks the return, after which it shows as signed off. While a return is unlocked or shows valid, invalid or blank, you can resubmit without emailing the Bank.
5. Cross-return checks after each PSS. The Bank tests Q1 + Q2 against H1 by country grouping, plus magnitude jumps, and sends a rule-break report; each break must be explained or revised. The briefing set a national threshold of €25,000 as a starting point and a revision window weeks after each semi-annual deadline, before datasets lock.
6. Schemes are declared up front. Schemes reported under their own codes must be notified to the Bank in advance.

8. Worked scenarios

Facts: an Irish-authorised EMI issues debit cards to Irish consumers and Irish IBAN accounts, and its reporting calendar lists only the EIA and EIS. It assumes that as a small firm it is exempt from statistics.

Rule: it is resident in Ireland, so it is in the Article 2 population. The Central Bank does not take derogation applications, and the published reduced-reporters list does not name it, so it is a full reporter. As a domestic issuer of personal cards it also falls within the instructions for the monthly PSM.

What the practitioner does: writes to paystats to confirm the return set and the C-code, then adds PSQ, PSS and PSM to the calendar from the 2026 schedule. One extraction feeds all three, so months sum to quarters and quarters to half-years, with the MCC taken from the authorisation message.

Outcome: the next due dates are fixed: PSM for October 2026 by 16 November 2026, PSQ for Q4 2026 by 29 January 2027, PSS for H2 2026 by 26 February 2027. Missed periods are filed late with an explanation.

Facts: an e-money institution authorised in another euro-area state serves Irish customers. Group A does so purely cross-border. Group B has opened an Irish branch that runs the Irish book.

Rule: Annex III Part 1.3 includes in the Irish population branches of institutions with a head office elsewhere, and forbids cross-border consolidation. A provider with no Irish establishment is not resident in Ireland.

What the practitioner does: for Group B, sets up the Irish branch as its own reporting agent, splits branch activity out of the home-country return. For Group A, reports the Irish customer activity in the home-country return with Ireland as the counterpart country, and confirms that position with the home NCB.

Outcome: no transaction is counted twice or missed.

Facts: after the H1 2026 PSS, a firm’s rule-break report shows that Q1 + Q2 credit transfers sent to France do not equal the H1 figure. Domestic transfers also appear under IE.

Rule: the cross-return checks require semi-annual and quarterly data to agree within threshold by counterpart grouping, and domestic transactions belong under W2.

What the practitioner does: traces the gap to a quarterly extraction that dated transfers by settlement date while the semi-annual one used execution date. They align the convention, recode domestic flows to W2, and resubmit the PSQ files and PSS inside the revision window.

Outcome: the break closes with a one-line explanation on file, and the firm adds the Bank’s internal-consistency rules to its own pre-submission checks.

9. FAQ

10. What to do, today

• Head of regulatory reporting: add PSQ 29 January 2027 and PSS 26 February 2027 to the close calendar now, plus PSM monthly if you issue personal cards domestically.
• Compliance lead: check the current reduced-reporters list for your entity and keep a dated copy. If you are not listed, plan as a full reporter.
• Data owner: build PSM, PSQ and PSS from one extraction with one date convention, report domestic flows as W2, and run the Bank’s internal-consistency rules before each upload.
• Fraud lead: map the Tables 5a and 5b fields to your fraud event store, and document the differences from your other fraud reporting.
• Group structure owner: confirm in writing which entity reports Irish activity (Irish branch or home-country provider) so nothing is counted twice or left out.

Related: ECB payment statistics regulation · Central Bank of Ireland Portal: PIA, PIS, EIA, EIS · Balance of payments reporting in Ireland · NBB payment statistics in Belgium