The Bank's new 'Pay to Mobile' allows customers to send money to family and friends with a registered Bank of Ireland account by using their mobile phone number.

To date, almost 20,000 of the bank's 180,000 active mobile customers have pre-registered for the service, available now for iPhone users, with an Android version following shortly.

Gavin Kelly, head of direct channels at Bank of Ireland comments: "This new service allows customers to transfer money to friends or family without having to know, or input, their account details. We're delighted to be the first bank in Ireland to rollout this capability to our customers."