In brief: Bancomat, Bizum and SIBS cement their partnership

Bancomat, the Italian ATM operator behind online payment service Bancomat Pay, Bizum, the Spanish mobile payment service, and SIBS, the Portuguese payment network owning mobile payment provider MB WAY, announced last week that they had carried out their first interoperable, cross-border instant payment transactions. A demonstration took place at the Web Summit, where the three payment players showed off their live exchanges.

A year after formalizing their partnership, the three companies will be able to offer their customers payments to Italy, Spain and Portugal. They have also renamed this partnership EuropPA (European Payments Alliance), a way of showing that their ambitions do not stop at southern Europe.

In concrete terms, transactions are carried out using the SEPA instant transfer (SCTInst) and in collaboration with financial institutions in the countries concerned.

Eventually, interoperability between the three solutions will bring together over 45 million users and 182 partner institutions. According to the press release, interoperability should be effective by 2025 between Portugal, Italy and Spain. Other European countries will follow.

Becoming a leader

With this announcement, the three players aim to position themselves as pioneers in pan-European cross-border payment. Even though Wero has already been launched in two countries, the southern countries have shown great efficiency in carrying out their project. Their ambition is clear: to establish themselves as a leading European alliance for instant payments.

This announcement marks an important milestone in the Instant Payment sector, as it marks the entry of a new competitor capable of offering interoperability between European countries. Players such as EPI and Vipps MobilePay will have to mobilize even more to remain competitive.