The clients of the Santander Bank in Spain are at the forefront of a new era in cross-border payments. For the first time, they will be able to make instant money transfers to individuals in Italy, Portugal and Andorra, using only your mobile phone number and without the need for bank cards or traditional transfers. This innovative feature is possible thanks to the interconnection of mobile payment solutions leaders in each country: Bizum in Spain, Bancomat in Italy and MB WAY in Portugal.
The implementation of this service allows Bizum users to send and receive money instantly with the same security and confidence which they already experience in domestic transactions. By simply selecting a contact from their address book, funds are transferred from account to account, drastically simplifying the process of sending money across borders.
This initiative represents a significant advance in the interoperability of mobile payment systems in Europe, connecting millions of users.
This launch marks the success of the pilot tests Within the framework of EuroPA (European Payments Alliance), consolidating Bizum's interoperability with other European payment platforms. This service is expected to be gradually expand to include more countries and financial institutions in the future, with the aim of developing a unified pan-European payment solution. Bizum's initial connection with Bancomat and MB WAY will allow for short-term connection to more than 50 million users and 186 financial institutions, laying the foundation for a much broader mobile payments network.
Mobile payment solutions such as Bizum, Bancomat and MB WAY have proven their robustness and popularity. In 2024, more than 2.000 billion payments through these platforms, with Bizum providing more than half of these transactions. In their respective markets, these solutions represent a share greater than 65% of total instant payments, reaching 90% in the case of Bizum in Spain last year.
Bizum, the immediate payment solution via mobile phone from Spanish banks, has consolidated its position with 29 over millions of users, 85.000 businesses and 12.000 donation codes registered until May 2025. In the last year, the Spanish population made more than a billion instant transfers through Bizum, which underlines its dominance in the digital payments landscape in Spain.
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