On January 21st of this year, Airbnb's Payments Terms of Service were updated to state that for all transactions on and after March 25, 2019, the Contracting Entity for hosts whose country of residence is in the European Union, would be Airbnb Payments UK or Airbnb Payments Luxembourg, as notified to you at the time of checkout or by other appropriate means. (Presumably, this was in line with the original Brexit date of March 29th)
Meanwhile, on March 19th, US giant Citigroup - one of the world's leading investment banks - announced that it would be scaling up its Irish operations, and clients unable to conduct business through its UK entities after Brexit, would instead be able to access its products and services through Citibank Europe plc, which is HQ'ed in Dublin, and is a subsidiary of Citibank Holdings Ireland Ltd.
Uk-based Citibank International Ltd had already merged with Citibank Europe plc in 2016, so the fact that many UK hosts are now reporting that they're being paid through "Citibank Ireland" would appear to indicate that the UK payment operations have indeed been relocated as a result of Brexit implications.
There's also now a branch of Citibank Europe in Luxembourg, that was recently established as Britain was expected to lose financial passporting rights, which allow banks with a base in the UK to sell products and services to customers and financial markets across the EU, after Brexit.
According to Luxembourg’s commercial register, Airbnb Payments Luxembourg SA was registered on 4 January of this year, and focuses on the issue, acquisition, distribution and exchange of electronic money, and the provision of payment services.
"Citibank Eire" is a bit of a conundrum though, as that's not listed on the most recent register of Citigroup's "significant subsidiaries", which was posted on December 31, 2018, in accordance with SEC rules. That said, neither is Citibank Luxembourg, so it's quite possible the reason for that is that they were both created after the list was published. Seems a little incongruous that a non-native company would use the traditional Gaelic term "Éire" in its title though, regardless of whether it's based in Dublin or Luxembourg.
From one corporate tax haven, to another... Airbnb sure don't do things by halves when it comes to sheltering their profits.
