AIB Launches New Mobile Banking App — Built With 3,000 Customers Over 18 Months

AIB has today launched a fully redesigned mobile banking app, the most significant overhaul of its digital offering in more than a decade. The new app will be rolled out to customers on a phased basis from the end of June, with the rollout continuing over a number of months. For a bank with 2.8 million customers currently registered to use its app, the scale of this deployment is considerable — and the timing is deliberate.

Irish banking is in the middle of a competitive moment. Fintechs have reshaped what customers expect from a banking app, and the pressure on the pillar banks to respond has been building steadily. Today, AIB makes its most direct response yet.

What's Actually New

The redesigned app is not a cosmetic refresh. On top of the app's redesign, it gives customers easier access to payments, improved visibility of recently paid and upcoming payments, enhanced security, access to savings accounts within the app, and the option to invest money through its AIB Life hub.

The app includes personal finance insights such as categorised spend, brand names, logos and locations, and budgeting options, along with enhanced security and fraud protection and a reduced log-in time. For customers who have long wanted to see their spending broken down clearly — not just as transaction references, but with recognisable merchant names and locations — this is a material improvement.

The new app will also utilise Zippay for instant payments between the three pillar banks — the person-to-person payment service launched jointly by AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB earlier this year, which allows customers to send, request and split payments instantly using a mobile number.

Built Around Customer Feedback

One of the more telling details about this launch is how the product was developed. The new app was developed in collaboration with 3,000 customers over the last 18 months. That is a substantial co-design process for a retail banking product, and it reflects a shift in how AIB is approaching its digital development — starting with stated customer frustrations rather than internal assumptions about what users want.

AIB CEO Colin Hunt previewed the app's direction earlier this year, describing it as something that would be "far more intuitive and far easier to use, and more encompassing of all aspects of a person's financial life." The project falls within the annual €300 million budget AIB has set for technology investment in its current strategic plan, spanning 2024 to 2026. Today's launch represents the most visible output of that three-year investment cycle.

The Competitive Context

AIB's Managing Director of Retail Banking, Geraldine Casey, pushed back at today's launch on the suggestion that the bank was playing catch-up in the digital space. "We're certainly not playing catch up," she said. "I think what we have is an overall offering that's unique in the market. We pride ourselves that customers can bank with us how they choose — it's not just digitally. We have customers who come into our branches every day."

The point is a legitimate one. AIB still has 170 branches across the country — a physical footprint that neobanks do not have and cannot easily replicate. The bank's argument is that the combination of a redesigned digital offering and a maintained branch and phone banking network is a different proposition to Revolut or N26, not simply a slower version of them.

That said, the competitive pressure is real and the numbers illustrate it. Revolut reportedly has 3.4 million customers in Ireland — the same number as AIB's total Irish customer base. A review of Irish banking apps last year by Bonkers.ie found that while AIB's existing app was considered the strongest among the three domestic banks, it fell short of what the neobanks were offering. Today's launch is AIB's direct response to that gap.

What the Research Tells Us About Irish Banking Habits

AIB commissioned research alongside the app launch that sheds useful light on how Irish people actually engage with mobile banking. A third of adults in Ireland check their banking app at least once a day, and 44% log in a few times a week. That is a significant daily touchpoint — more frequent than many other daily digital interactions.

The survey of 1,000 adults also found that 55% of Irish adults use two to three different apps to manage different parts of their finances, with 13% using four to five different apps. That fragmentation is precisely what AIB is trying to address. If customers are using a separate app for payments, another for budgeting, and another for savings, the bank sees an opportunity to consolidate those functions into a single, trusted environment — its own.

Fees, Features and What Comes Next

The app launch arrives alongside a broader change to how AIB charges customers. Back in March, AIB announced it would be shifting from quarterly fees on customer accounts to a charge of €6 per month, due to be introduced on July 1. Geraldine Casey was clear at today's launch that the fee restructure and the new app features are separate decisions — the enhanced app will not cost customers more than the new monthly fee already accounts for.

On what comes next, Casey indicated that additional features are in the pipeline, while acknowledging the scale of change this represents for customers. The phased rollout approach — rather than a single overnight switch — is designed to manage that transition carefully, giving customers time to familiarise themselves with the new interface before the old one is retired.

The Bigger Picture for Irish Banking

Today's launch is one data point in a broader story about where Irish retail banking is heading. The three pillar banks — AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB — have spent recent years investing heavily in digital infrastructure, launching Zippay as a joint venture, and reshaping their physical branch networks. The pressure to do so has come from multiple directions: changing customer expectations, fintech competition, and a regulatory environment that increasingly demands robust digital security and fraud prevention.

AIB's new app addresses all three. The enhanced fraud protection and security features are not incidental additions — they reflect a banking sector acutely aware that digital fraud is a growing threat to customer confidence. The budgeting and spending insights features respond to customer demand for financial tools that help with day-to-day money management, not just transaction processing. And the Zippay integration positions AIB within the emerging Irish instant payments infrastructure that the three banks are building together.

For 2.8 million registered app users in Ireland, the rollout beginning this month will represent the most tangible change to their daily banking experience in years. Whether the new app narrows the gap with the neobanks in customer satisfaction is a question that will be answered over the coming months — but the direction of travel is clear.

The Bottom Line

AIB's new mobile banking app, launched today and rolling out from the end of June, is the bank's most significant digital upgrade since it first launched a mobile offering in 2011. Built with input from 3,000 customers over 18 months and backed by a €300 million annual technology investment programme, it brings spending insights, improved security, savings access, investment options and Zippay integration into a single redesigned interface. With 2.8 million registered app users and a competitive landscape that has never been more demanding, the bank has chosen to respond with a product built around what its customers said they actually wanted.