Spain’s Bizum Banks on Point of Sale Expansion to Drive Growth

Since its launch in 2016, Bizum has become an integral part of Spain’s payment ecosystem.

But although the mobile payment system boasts over 22 million users, about 47% of Spain’s total population, initial adoption has been largely limited to eCommerce transactions, with cash payments still proving to be a strong local contender.

“We are doing fine in eCommerce but we still have the challenge of competing with cash,” Bizum’s business development director, Fernando Rodriguez, told PYMNTS in an interview.

And while the bank-owned payment system has a variety of use cases, spanning online transactions, in-person point-of-sale (POS) payments and tax payments, Rodriguez pointed to peer-to-peer (P2P) payments as their largest use case.

However, as Spanish consumers become increasingly familiar with Bizum for P2P and online payments, he was optimistic that the mobile app’s user experience and growing merchant acceptance “will be the enablers [that] turn Bizum into a complete payment solution.”

What’s more, Bizum has proven its appeal beyond Spain’s smartphone-savvy younger generations. As he explained, older users that were not initially as open to digital solutions have increasingly embraced Bizum as a payment method post-pandemic.

At the other end of the scale, he said that banks are starting to incorporate Bizum into their apps for under-18s, extending its scope to a younger crowd open to mobile technologies but not old enough to have a full current account.

Towards Pan-European Interoperability

According to Rodriguez, significant fragmentation exists in the European payment landscape, a disadvantage highlighted by members of the European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA) like Denmark’s MobilePay and Sweden’s Swish.

All in all, he said, the continent is moving in the right direction, pointing to the recent proposal by the European Commission to legally mandate EU banks to offer instant SEPA transfers.

Bizum became a member of the association this year, working with 16 other payment systems to create an interoperable mobile payment system and ensure seamless mobile payments across the region for a combined user base of over 90 million consumers.

See more: EU Digital Wallets Take On Global Card Networks, Strive for Interoperability

Rather than trying to build a new pan-European payment network from scratch, Rodriguez explained that the rationale behind EMPSA is to leverage what its members have already built.

“You need to embrace what is already happening and work together with other solutions,” he said, adding that by connecting existing payment systems, the user experience isn’t interrupted and users in different countries can easily send each other money from their preferred familiar interface.

For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe to the daily EMEA Newsletter