Europe’s leading payment schemes announce new entity to enable interoperability across their solutions
Bancomat, Bizum, EPI/Wero, SIBS – MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay announce the creation of a European interoperability entity “European Network for Payments” to connect their respective solution, a concrete step towards European sovereignty
Bancomat, Bizum, EPI Company/Wero, SIBS-MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay announced the creation of a new joint entity “European Network for Payments”, dedicated to operating and scaling interoperability between participating European payment solutions.
Headquartered in Madrid, the newly established entity will operate the common interoperability hub announced under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the founding partners in February 2026.
This represents a breakthrough in the implementation of a sovereign and interoperable European payments framework, enabling participating solutions to progressively deliver seamless cross-border payments (peer-to-peer, in-store and online) across Europe while preserving their respective brands and user experiences. Together, the solutions already serve approximately 130 million users across 13 European countries – representing more than 70% of the EU and Norway’s population – offering immediate scale and market coverage for both consumers and merchants.
The role of the newly established entity is to connect existing European payment solutions through a common technical and operational layer based on European standards, including instant account-to-account payments. The founding partners will be equal shareholders of the entity, which will oversee technical coordination and future expansion of both functionalities and participating solutions. The framework may also accommodate other established European payment solutions over time, subject to the partners’ agreement and the technical and operational requirements of the network.
Solutions and ENP are now preparing the technical implementation of the target set-up. The phased rollout is planned to start with cross-border peer-to-peer payments, with e-commerce and point-of-sale (POS) payments to follow in subsequent phases.
The creation of this interoperability entity represents a significant step forward in building a sovereign and integrated European payments landscape. By connecting strong national solutions through a common framework, we are enabling seamless cross-border experiences while preserving the diversity, trust and proximity that each system has built in its own market. For BANCOMAT, this initiative reflects a clear strategic priority: to contribute actively to a scalable European model that combines innovation, interoperability and resilience, reinforcing the central role of banks and European infrastructures in the future of digital payments.
The creation of the European Network for Payments demonstrates the ability of Europe’s banking sector to join forces and build a sovereign, efficient and innovative payments system that serves citizens. At Bizum, we are proud to contribute, alongside our European partners, to an interoperable infrastructure that enables simple, instant and secure cross-border payments, while preserving the trust and user experience of each local solution. This initiative strengthens Europe’s strategic autonomy and paves the way for a new generation of connected digital payments designed to meet the needs of consumers and merchants across the continent.
Europeans should be able to use the payment solutions they already trust when they travel, shop or do business across borders. Our vision for Wero is to make every payment fast and simple, whether people are sending money, shopping online or paying in a store. By connecting European payment solutions, we can bring this convenience across borders, give consumers more choice and help merchants serve customers from across Europe without any major investment. This is how we build a sovereign European alternative that works in everyday life.
This is a decisive step towards a truly European payments ecosystem. By joining forces with Bancomat, Bizum, EPI and Vipps MobilePay, we are building the infrastructure that allows MB WAY users to pay seamlessly across borders, while keeping the sovereignty, trust and proximity that define national payment solutions. Interoperability is not just a technical achievement. It is a statement about Europe’s ability to shape its own payments future.
Europe needs to move fast in building strong, independent European payment solutions. At Vipps MobilePay, we are therefore proud to join forces with leading payment solutions across Europe that are already strong in their home markets. Now we are connecting what we have built, turning ambition into action and creating a strong European alternative that is easy for Europeans to use across borders.
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About BANCOMAT
BANCOMAT, the most popular and recognised payment network in Italy, is one of the main players in the payments market, with over 2.7 billion transactions per year, worth around 200 billion euro. With its integrated ecosystem, BANCOMAT meets the needs of millions of Italians, offering every solution from traditional withdrawals to digital payments.
About Bizum
With over 32 million users, 120,000 online retailers, 1.6 million physical stores and 15,000 donation codes as of September 2026, Bizum is a success story for the Spanish banking system; a joint project that forms part of its collaborative and innovative digital initiatives. With its payment services – based on instant SEPA transfers – and digital identification via mobile phone, which is convenient, fast and secure, banks are expanding the range of services they offer to their customers. The combined market share of the banking brands offering Bizum to their customers already exceeds 99 per cent, and Bizum continues to work on incorporating new use cases. In 2025 alone, the Spanish population made an average of over 3.4 million instant transfers per day via Bizum. As an innovation and collaboration project within the Spanish financial sector, Bizum relies on national companies that make its service possible. On the one hand, Redsys is the technology provider for Bizum’s infrastructure. On the other hand, Redsys itself and Cecabank are the processors authorised by Bizum to provide services to its member institutions. Finally, the instant transfers generated by Bizum are processed through the National Electronic Clearing System (SNCE), which is supervised by the Bank of Spain and operated by Iberpay.
About EPI/Wero
EPI (or European Payments Initiative) is founded by 18 European banks and payment service providers as shareholders. Beyond the shareholders, more than 50 institutions in Europe are now members of EPI. They have joined forces with a common goal: to offer a unified mobile payment service to all European merchants and citizens, Wero. Based on instant account-to-account (A2A) payments, Wero aims to deliver the full value of instant payments for both consumers and merchants across Europe for all retail payment use cases. Already available for person-to-person payments in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg, Wero is expanding across retail use cases. While online payments are live in Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg now offer the full range of currently available Wero use cases, including in-store payments. The migration from iDEAL to Wero is underway in the Netherlands, and Wero is expected to launch in Austria in 2027.
About SIBS – MB WAY
MB WAY was the first immediate transfer solution in the Eurozone, and to date is the most complete one, with more than 15 features, including peer to peer instant transfers, e-commerce, MB WAY QR Code, NFC payments, ATM withdraws and donations. MB WAY users make more +70 Million transactions per month, across more than 500.000 POI and merchants, and between more +12 Million cards and accounts. With more than four decades of existence, SIBS provides modern, reliable and secure financial services, especially in the payments sector, to more than 220 million users on four different continents, processing more than 17 billion transactions annually. In addition to being one of the main payment processors in Europe, SIBS is a reference in security and anti-fraud solutions in business process outsourcing and the Iberian leader in card production and personalization. SIBS was born and has grown through innovation and will continue to pursue its mission of being the reference partner for public and private entities, creating value for society through the development and management of payment solutions, processes and related services based on technology that combines security, convenience and innovation. The company adheres to good principles of conduct and sustainability conditions.
About Vipps MobilePay
Vipps MobilePay makes paying very, very simple, no matter where you are. Whether you’re grabbing coffee in Copenhagen, splitting a bill in Helsinki, sending money to friends in Sweden or tapping to pay in Oslo, we’ve got you. We started in Norway, Denmark, and Finland, and our Swedish neighbours joined in 2024. We serve around 13 million users and close to 400.000 businesses across the Nordics. Vipps and MobilePay merged in 2022.
