P2P Payment: New Mobile App by BBVA

Spain-based BBVA recently launched Efectivo Movil: a new mobile app for P2P funds transfers.

• The payment’s initiator enters the recipient’s mobile phone number, the number of the account he wishes to debit and the amount to be transferred. The receiver get a code via SMS and copies it at a BBVA ATM to take out the amount in cash.

Comments

• After having launched a mobile website (BBVA.mobi) and a mobile service to let customers know of any movement on their bank accounts (alerts), the Spanish player wishes to strengthen its position on the mobile channel.
• This new app also confirms that banks are interested in getting hold of the P2P market which used to be headed by independent players (LendingClub, Dwolla, etc.), among these banking players: turkey-based IsBank or American Express with Serve. Banking and financial players used to focus on developing countries to propose P2P offers, these solutions are now available in industrialised countries and reach out for markets such as payment, credit, barber, online payment or even insurances. This expansion also partakes to a post crisis period and is favoured by the expansion of the Internet and mass adoption of smartphones. Consumers areincreasingly in demand of cheaper alternative solutions.