Airbnb will move the processing of all EU payments from the UK to Luxembourg as of 2020 because of Brexit.
The home rental platform opened a subsidiary in Luxembourg at the end of last year and was granted a payment institution license in the country last month.
“We chose Luxembourg, in a post-Brexit context, for its central location, because it is a major financial center and because many payment services are established there. Everybody in Luxembourg is familiar with the complexity of payments in the e-commerce sector,” explained Airbnb.
Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna hailed Airbnb’s move. “The decision to create a payment institution in Luxembourg further strengthens the role of the Grand Duchy as a major payment services hub in the European Union,” he said.
With its decision to relocate its EU payments hub to Luxembourg, Airbnb follows in the footsteps of other leading international players in the payments sector, such as PayPal, Amazon Payments, Rakuten and Alipay.