Bizum

The large banks operating in Spain founded Bizum S.L. on 27 June 2016, and today 22 Spanish credit institutions hold shares in the company (in Spanish), together about 96 percent of the Spanish banking market. Ángel Nigorra is the general manager of Bizum S.L., which sets the rules of the service, while each bank offers Bizum to its own customers inside its banking app.

The list of participating entities has 39 names, from CaixaBank, Banco Santander, BBVA and Banco Sabadell to regional banks such as Kutxabank, Ibercaja and Cajamar. International and digital banks offer Bizum as well, among them Deutsche Bank, ING, bunq, N26, Trade Republic and Revolut. The Andorran banks Creand and MoraBanc are on the list too, and payments between Spain and Andorra work the same way as payments within Spain.

A payment between two people needs only the mobile number of the recipient, and the money arrives in the other account within ten seconds. The Banco de España explains (in Spanish) that the phone number acts as an alias for the IBAN of the recipient, so the payment runs as a SEPA instant credit transfer. Interbank settlement takes place in the Spanish clearing system SNCE, which Iberpay operates. Users can also request money from a contact, who then has seven days to accept or reject the request in the banking app.

Bizum carries most instant payments in Spain: in 2024 its share of all instant payments in the country was about 90 percent, according to Bizum, Bancomat and SIBS (in Spanish). In 2025, users made 1,237 million transactions worth 67.7 billion euros (in Spanish), an average of 3.4 million a day. The busiest single day was Black Friday, 28 November 2025, with almost 5.3 million transactions.

At checkout, Bizum works as a pay by bank method: the customer selects Pay with Bizum, enters the phone number and confirms the payment in the banking app without typing card details. Subscriptions and regular purchases run the same way after the customer has registered Bizum once with the merchant. In 2025, online purchases with Bizum grew by 82.1 percent to 105.6 million, worth 5.4 billion euros, and the banks connected 28,600 new online merchants. Merchants and banks put the share of Bizum in Spanish e-commerce at 20 to 30 percent.

Contactless payments in stores followed in 2026: the customer holds the phone to the card terminal and pays from the bank account through NFC, either in the banking app or in Bizum Pay, the wallet of Bizum that also holds cards. By September 2026, almost 20 million users could pay in stores (in Spanish), and 75 percent of the bank card terminals in Spain accepted Bizum, at more than 1.6 million merchants. A merchant usually keeps its payment terminal and asks its bank to switch Bizum on. At the lottery outlets of Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, customers pay with a QR code that they create in the banking app.

Bizum, Bancomat from Italy and SIBS, the Portuguese operator of MB WAY, are the founders of the European Payments Alliance, known as EuroPA. Since 31 March 2025, banks in the four countries have switched on transfers between Spain, Andorra, Italy and Portugal, starting in Spain with Banco Santander, Abanca and Openbank. The sender still enters only a mobile number in the usual banking app, and the recipient in Italy or Portugal needs no Bizum account. In 2025, users made more than 69,400 such cross-border transfers worth 5.7 million euros, and 90 percent of them had Bizum as the sending or receiving side.

On 30 September 2026, Bizum, Bancomat, SIBS, Vipps MobilePay and the European Payments Initiative with its wallet Wero founded the European Network for Payments (in Spanish). The joint company in Madrid, owned in equal shares, runs the common hub that is to connect about 130 million users in 13 countries. Transfers between people come first, and payments in online shops and at the point of sale follow in later phases.

Bizum is a payment service of the Spanish banks that moves money from one bank account to another within seconds. The user activates it once in the banking app with the mobile number linked to the account, and then pays other people, online shops and stores with that number or by holding the phone to a terminal.

Charities and NGOs registered with Bizum receive donations under a five-digit code, and about 15,000 organizations take part. Companies can send money to their customers through Bizum as well, for prizes, promotions and refunds to anyone registered with the service.

A user in Spain sends money to MB WAY users in Portugal and to Bancomat Pay users in Italy with the same steps as at home, entering only the mobile number. Between Spain and Andorra, both sides use Bizum itself, because Andorran banks such as Creand and MoraBanc offer the service in their apps.

A merchant contracts Bizum through its bank, which sets the commercial conditions, and connects it through a certified bank payment gateway or a plugin for its shop system. Bizum also offers merchants a digital identifier, so customers can register and log in to a shop with their phone number and banking app.

N26, Revolut, bunq and Trade Republic are on the list of entities that offer Bizum, and a customer activates it in the app with the phone number linked to the account. Customers of German banks that offer Wero are to reach Bizum users through the hub of the European Network for Payments, which starts with transfers between people.