On Europe Day, six leading European mobile payment services—Bizum (Spain), BANCOMAT (Italy), Blik (Poland), Blink by BORICA (Bulgaria), MB WAY/SIBS (Portugal), and Vipps MobilePay (Denmark, Finland, and Norway)—have come together to reaffirm their commitment to building a stronger, digitally connected Europe. This collaboration celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, a foundational step in the creation of the European Union.

The Schuman Declaration, signed on May 9, 1950, emphasized that European unity would arise from “concrete achievements that create a de facto solidarity.” Today, this principle is taking shape as interoperable, cross-border instant payment solutions, making real-time mobile transfers possible across European countries.

EuroPA: Building a Pan-European Digital Payments Infrastructure

The collaboration is part of EuroPA (European Payments Alliance), an initiative to develop a seamless and sovereign European payment system. EuroPA leverages EU standards, the trust of local payment brands, and private sector collaboration to enhance Europe’s strategic autonomy and technological independence in the digital payments landscape.

Bizum, a Spanish mobile payment platform backed by the national banking sector, is leading this effort. Its CEO, Ángel Nigorra, shared:

“Today, on Europe Day, the best way to congratulate Europeans is to give them the news that they will be able to make instant transfers with their mobile phones across the continent, in the same way they are used to, without changing their daily habits.”

Instant Mobile Transfers Across Borders: A Reality in 2024

The EuroPA initiative already connects over 50 million users and over 180 financial institutions, creating an ever-expanding ecosystem of interoperable instant payments. In 2024 alone, the original trio—Bizum, BANCOMAT, and MB WAY/SIBS—processed over 2 billion transactions, leading the instant payment market in their respective countries.

With the inclusion of Blik, Blink by BORICA, and Vipps MobilePay, the alliance is rapidly expanding its geographic footprint. This progress is a significant step toward enabling cross-border instant payments that are fast, secure, and user-friendly, mirroring the seamless experience users already enjoy domestically.

Toward a Truly Unified European Digital Economy

The goal of the EuroPA initiative is clear: to deliver frictionless payment experiences for European citizens, businesses, and merchants, regardless of borders. Doing so paves the way for a more digital, interoperable, and cooperative Europe.

As Ángel Nigorra highlighted, this is only the beginning:

“We want to welcome more solutions that have also shown interest in interconnection, while encouraging others to join us in creating a sovereign European payment system.”

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Bizum pushes to conquer online payments by offering its services to online stores starting this month.  

Since May 5th, Bizum customers can use the tool to facilitate their payments in online stores. Launching the feature may take longer for some internet users, but it will help brands sell more online, and more users will opt for this shopping option.

To use Bizum to make purchases on e-commerce platforms, banks must accept incorporating the new function. The first to do so will be BBVA, where customers only have to go to the Bizum section within the bank's app and activate 'Bizum commerce payment'.

The functionality is used with a given email address, which users must use to log in to online stores. Once that is done, they can use that payment system to purchase products on the e-commerce platforms.

The Bizum shopping service is free; users can check which websites have signed up for the function.

Bizum, a Spanish mobile payment solution

Bizum is a payment service provider in Spain, resulting from the collaboration of 34 banking institutions in the country to create a system for instant payments between individuals and store purchases. In 2019 Bizum surpassed 6 million users. Already in August 2020, it reached 10 million users.

Alongside the new online payment functionality, yesterday, Bizum also announced multiple new changes regarding the limit for sending money per day and month. 

Specifically, the amount of money Bizum can send to another account in 24 hours is increased to 2,000 euros. And up to 5,000 euros in sending money within 30 or 31 days.

New monthly limit

As for the monthly limit, it must be used according to the limits and rules of the entity, under a maximum number of 60 operations, which are those that a user can receive at most per 30 or 31 days. 

Because the platform introduces new limits and changes the conditions of instant transfers between individuals, specifically, the maximum number of transactions per month between individuals has been reduced.

Previously, a user could perform up to 150 transactions per month, but with the new conditions imposed by the platform, he will only be able to perform 60 transactions per month.

This limit will only apply to payments between individuals; therefore, a person with Bizum can receive a maximum of 60 Bizum per month but can send as many as he/she wants. In addition, the banks can further reduce the maximum of 60 monthly transactions if they deem it necessary.

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Bizum payments have increased almost four times in the past 2021. The Spanish banking mobile payment solution, reached 6.1 million purchases made in the first half of 2022, almost four times more (+281%) than in the same period of the previous year (1.6 million) and surpassing the transactions made during the whole of 2021 (5.3 million). 

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According to data provided by the company, the value of purchases made with Bizum amounted to 351.7 million euros, a significant growth when looking at the figures recorded last year (320 million euros, +9.9%). The number of online merchants accepting Bizum amounts to 34,900, practically double that of June last year, with 8,200 more adhering merchants than at the end of 2021. 

Bizum: The app to pay the tab 

Bizum has achieved its most significant popularity in Spain thanks to its usefulness as a tool for sending small amounts of money between individuals. In this regard, users made an average of 22 bizums per second during the first half of 2022. 

The number of person-to-person transactions carried out during the first half of 2022 was 338 million, an average of 22 bizums per second, with an associated volume of €18 billion and an average amount per transaction of €53. The app is commonly used to split bars and restaurants tabs among friends.

Currently, Bizum users already exceed 20.8 million, representing a growth of 26.06% compared to July 2021. It is also worth noting that the activity rate during the first half of 2022 (percentage of users who used Bizum) reached 90%.

According to Ángel Nigorra, CEO of Bizum, "The figures show the daily use of Bizum is increasing and growing in all age groups, especially among the more adult public, due to its simplicity. And we continue to break records. Last July 1, 2.8 million bizums were made, an average of 33 bizums per second."

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