Pleo vs Soldo vs Equals Money - Irish Expense Management Compared

Pleo fits Irish SMEs in the 5 to 30 staff range that already bank with AIB or Bank of Ireland and want a single spend platform that closes the loop between card spend and bank reconciliation without manual CSV exports. The deciding capability is the Tink open-banking integration that reads transactions from your Irish current account so receipt-captured spend can be matched against the bank statement automatically. Skip Pleo if your starting requirement is an Irish-regulated provider issuing an Irish IBAN: Pleo holds a Danish e-money licence (DFSA reference 40506) and passports into Ireland under the European Communities (Electronic Money) Regulations 2011, with Danish-prefix IBANs on its wallets.

Soldo fits Irish SMEs in the 20 to 500 staff range that want spend controlled at point of issue and value an Irish-regulated provider. Soldo Financial Services Ireland DAC (CRO 610705, Dublin 1) is directly authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as an electronic money institution under reference C179925, and issues IE-prefix IBANs via that entity (BIC SFSDIE22). For a finance lead reconciling SEPA top-ups against an AIB or Bank of Ireland statement, that distinction is a real procedural saving versus Pleo's Danish-passported entity. Skip Soldo if you are under five staff (the wallet-and-card structure is over-spec), or if your dominant need is multi-currency foreign exchange - Wise Business and Revolut Business are cheaper there.

Equals Money is regulated only by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA 488396; e-money authorisation FCA 900493). It does not appear on the Central Bank of Ireland register, and post-Brexit cannot rely on EEA passporting to acquire new Republic of Ireland customers. The published product lists no Irish IBAN issuance and no Ireland-specific eligibility statement. The practical position for an Irish-resident SME in May 2026: Equals Money is not a like-for-like option versus Pleo or Soldo. Evaluate it only if a UK entity in the group is the contracting customer, and confirm eligibility with Equals Money directly before signing.

Direct Irish authorisation

Of the three, only Soldo holds a direct Central Bank of Ireland authorisation. Soldo Financial Services Ireland Designated Activity Company (Companies Registration Office number 610705, registered office P.O. Box 559, Dublin 1) is on the CBI register as an authorised electronic money institution under reference C179925. The Irish DAC issues IE-prefix IBANs against the BIC SFSDIE22, holds the customer relationship for Irish wallets, and is supervised by the Central Bank of Ireland under the European Communities (Electronic Money) Regulations 2011 and the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018.

EEA-passporting providers

Pleo is a Danish FSA-authorised electronic money institution (Pleo Financial Services A/S, DFSA reference 40506) that operates in Ireland under EEA passporting. That is a legitimate route into the Irish market, and Pleo is a fully-supervised EU credit-and-electronic-money provider, but the home-state supervisor is in Copenhagen, not Dublin. Operationally that translates to a Danish-prefix IBAN, a Danish data-protection regulator as lead supervisor for non-customer-facing complaints, and a longer route for an Irish customer dispute that escalates beyond first-line support.

Post-Brexit UK providers

Equals Money is regulated only by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Equals Money PLC is authorised to provide payment services under FCA reference 488396; Equals Money International Limited holds an electronic money authorisation under FCA reference 900493 in respect of the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. Neither entity appears on the Central Bank of Ireland\'s register of authorised electronic money institutions. Since the end of the Brexit transition period, UK-only-authorised firms cannot rely on EEA passporting to acquire new customers in the Republic of Ireland. An Irish-resident SME looking at Equals Money should confirm with Equals Money in writing what entity it would contract with, what regulator supervises that entity, and how euro SEPA Direct Debit B2B mandates would be set up on a non-EUR-native account before signing.

SEPA Direct Debit B2B in practice

All three providers support Single Euro Payments Area Credit Transfer for euro top-ups. SEPA Direct Debit is the harder surface: B2B SEPA Direct Debit mandates between Irish creditors (a payroll bureau, a software vendor) and the Irish customer\'s account require the creditor to set up a mandate against the IBAN of record. With Soldo on an IE IBAN, that mandate behaves like any AIB or Bank of Ireland counterparty. With Pleo on a DK IBAN, the mandate is technically valid under SEPA rules but some Irish creditor systems still flag non-IE IBANs for manual review at setup. With Equals Money on a non-euro-native account, this surface needs explicit confirmation - it is not a default capability of the UK product.

Pleo and Soldo are vendor profiles in the Vendors.ie dataset and are subject to the monthly verification cron (Perplexity sonar plus Anthropic citation verification). Equals Money has no vendor profile because the May 2026 review concluded it does not offer a clean Republic of Ireland customer path; it is documented here for completeness, sourced from public regulator records and the published product site.