Alternative to Ulster Bank & KBC Business Customers

If you are an Ulster Bank or KBC business customer in Ireland, you may need to open a new account. This page will help you assess if a Fire Business Account is a suitable alternative for you. Fire is an Irish company with a UK subsidiary, founded in 2010 and regulated as a payments institution by the Central Bank of Ireland. Fire provides business accounts, debit cards and payment services to thousands of businesses in Ireland and the UK.

Online sign up

Our signup process is online. You’ll need to upload documents to verify your business, its owners and directors. We aim to make this process, which usually takes 48 hours, as easy as possible.

Pay as you go

Fire has no set up or account opening fee. There is no monthly or quarterly fee. Transaction fees apply and these are deducted at the time of processing, so there’s no bill shock at the quarter end.

Great Services

As standard, Fire comes with a euro and sterling account, so you can get paid, hold funds and pay out in both currencies. You may order all the debit cards you need to run your business.

We help thousands of businesses with their accounts, cards and payments.
We are regulated in Ireland since 2010 and our accounts have IE IBANs.

A Fire Business Account supports the following features and payment services:

Sterling & Euro Accounts

When you open an account with Fire, you will by default have a sterling and euro (IE IBAN) account.

Multiple Accounts

Additional accounts may be added instantly and are available for use immediately.

Debit Cards

You may order multiple debit cards and link these to you accounts as needed.

Euro Payments

Payments in and out of Fire euro accounts are processed via the SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme.

Sterling Payments

Are processing via Faster Payments (in/out) and Bacs (in).

Direct Debit Payments

Pay bills by direct debit in sterling and euro, with notifications.

Mobile App

The FireWork app is required to access your account, approve payments etc. and for notifications.

Open Banking Payments

Enables you to request payments from your customers via Open Banking (see more here).

Systems Integration

The Fire API enables you to directly integrate your systems to your Fire Account.

Accounting Systems

Download transaction data for importing into a range of accounting software.

Key Differences – Fire Vs Ulster Bank/KBC

Our service is different from that provided by Ulster Bank. There are differences between an Ulster Bank Business Account and a Fire Business Account. To help you decide if Fire is a good option for your business, please note that we do not provide credit, credit cards, loans or overdrafts. We do not support cheques and it is not possible to lodge cash to a Fire Business Account.

As a regulated payments institution in the EU and an e-money institution in the UK, we ensure that all customer funds held by us are safeguarded with tier one credit institutions. This is not the same as the deposit guarantee scheme, which does not apply. Safeguarding means that your funds are segregated and never lent, invested or used by us for any operational purposes. See here for more information on how we keep your funds safe.

As a previous Ulster Bank or KBC Customer some of the following Fire features may be new to you:

  • The Fire Account application process is online.
  • Fire offers both Sterling & Euro accounts. And once you are up and running you can open additional accounts instantly.
  • You may order as many Fire Debit Cards as you need and link these cards to your Fire Business Accounts.
  • You will need to use the Fire Mobile App to log in, to approve payments and get notifications.
  • Use Open Banking Payments to get paid more easily.
  • Use the Fire API to integrate your systems with your Fire Business Accounts


If you have any queries about our services please feel free to contact us.

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We are a customer-first business, with offices in Dublin & London. We hope we can help you find a new solution.

Our Regulatory Status

We are regulated in Ireland (by the Central Bank of Ireland) since 2010 as a Payments Institution and in the UK we are authorised by the FCA as an e-money Institution since 2019. We are licenced to provide a range of payment services.