Ireland – Central Bank’s Deposit Guarantee Payout Platform: Opportunity for EU Fintech SMEs

Introduction: Why This Tender Matters

The Central Bank of Ireland has opened a high-value tender to develop a Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS) payout platform a mission-critical payments infrastructure designed to ensure rapid, secure disbursement of funds to eligible depositors in the event of bank failures.

Deadline: 13 August 2025, 12:00 (UTC+1)
Procurement Type: Public-sector, open to qualified vendors across the EU.

For SMEs in payments, RegTech, or secure financial software, this is a rare chance to showcase technical capability while winning a prestigious EU central bank contract.

What the Tender Involves

The DGS platform must:

• Process instant payouts to thousands of beneficiaries.
• Integrate with SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SEPA Inst) and batch payment fallbacks.
• Manage identity verification and customer communications securely.
• Operate under strict compliance with EU banking and data regulations.

Why SMEs Can Compete

While the project’s scale is large, SMEs have advantages:

• Agility: Faster delivery cycles and flexibility in adapting to Central Bank requirements.
• Specialized expertise: Niche skills in secure payment orchestration, fraud prevention, or UX.
• Partnership potential: Ability to form consortia with Irish subcontractors for local support.

Technical Bid Advice

1. Payments Architecture

• Map SEPA Inst workflows for real-time payouts.
• Define batch fallback processes for high-volume scenarios.
• Include routing logic for payment retries and failure handling.

2. Compliance & Security

• Prepare GDPR compliance documentation and Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA).
• Define RPO/RTO targets and disaster recovery procedures.
• Include penetration testing results and ISO 27001 certification.

3. Hosting & Infrastructure

• Propose EU-based secure cloud hosting with redundancy in Ireland.
• Detail encryption in transit and at rest.
• Provide uptime SLAs (ideally 99.99%) with monitoring dashboards.

4. Customer Communications

• Show secure, multilingual notifications via SMS, email, and portal.
• Include accessibility features for diverse user needs.
• Plan for clear helpdesk and self-service capabilities.

Fast-Track Action Plan for SMEs

1. Map your instant-payment and fallback workflows to the DGS use case.
2. Document prior regulated deployments with measurable KPIs.
3. Secure an Irish subcontractor to strengthen delivery continuity and local presence.

This is more than a technical build it’s a trust-critical system for EU citizens. SMEs that can combine payments innovation with bank-grade compliance have a genuine shot at winning.

🚀 Let’s Win This Together

At SMEConsulting.ae, we help EU-focused fintech SMEs identify, prepare, and win public tenders like this one. From requirements analysis to technical bid writing, compliance packs, and local partner sourcing, we handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on delivery.

Book your free tender strategy call today!