International instant payments between BANCOMAT, BIZUM and MB WAY are underway

Portugal, Italy, Spain - March 31, 2025 - BANCOMAT, Bizum and SIBS, have reached a significant milestone in the evolution of cross-border payments in Europe thanks to EuroPA, the European Payments Alliance, MB WAY, BANCOMAT and Bizum have started the progressive integration of their systems, which will allow users in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Andorra to send and receive money in real time by telephone number, using their preferred payment solution.
With this launch, users of BANCOMAT, Bizum and MB WAY will be able to send money across the border in a simple and immediate way, with the same speed and user experience they are already used to: just select a contact from the address book and the money will be immediately available in the recipient's account. All with the same reliability and safety standards already guaranteed at national level.

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Starting today, banks that adhere to local solutions will begin to progressively activate the interconnection. It is expected that all banks in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Andorra will be connected by the month of June. Each institution will inform its customers about the availability of the service.
EuroPA is also backed by important financial institutions, such as Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy and Santander in Spain.
EuroPA allows interoperability between BANCOMAT, Bizum and MB WAY, connecting more than 50 million users and 186 financial institutions in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Andorra.
BANCOMAT, Bizum and MB WAY are the main mobile payment solutions in their respective countries, with more than 2 billion transactions carried out in 2024 and a share of more than 65% of total instant payments in the four countries.
EuroPA is in line with the EU's strategic objective of achieving complete autonomy in payments, thanks to the adoption of EU SEPA standards, based on consolidated trust in European payment solutions and infrastructures, now interconnected in an innovative and simple way.
The alliance's ambition is to grow further to expand to new EU countries, simplifying the way in which European citizens make payments.

Work tables are already underway to extend the initiative to new areas of use, such as e-commerce through the new P2B model, to complete the spread of peer-to-peer payments. This initiative aims to further strengthen the innovative and reliable European payment infrastructure.

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