NewTech Friday: Bizum – Real-time mobile payment solution from Spanish banks
Bizum is a leading Spanish instant payment service company. Its Business Development Manager Fernando Rodríguez Ferrer presents the company and shares the latest developments and future prospects for Bizum.
Bizum is a leading Spanish instant payment service company. Its Business Development Manager Fernando Rodríguez Ferrer presents the company and shares the latest developments and future prospects for Bizum.
What led to the creation of Bizum?
In 2016, the main Spanish banks decided to join forces and collaborate to cover a need of banking users that until then had not been satisfied: that of making immediate mobile payments in a convenient, secure, fast and simple way, with a better user experience. Thus, Bizum was born as an innovation and collaboration project of Spanish banking.
Based on linking each customer's mobile phone and checking account, Bizum was initially launched to make immediate account-to-account payments between people, and then gradually provide users with other possibilities to make everyday payments.
Could you present Bizum's offer?
As an instant payment service via mobile (the money is in the recipient's account in less than 5 seconds, the only solution in Europe that generally uses the instant SEPA standard), Bizum allows users to make payments in a convenient and simple way, since it is not necessary to know the recipient's account number, but only to include their mobile phone number or select their contact in the phone book; and with complete security, since the service is integrated into banking applications and benefits from all banking security standards, without having to provide additional data. Furthermore, it is a universal service, regardless of the user's bank and available on any smartphone, regardless of its brand.
To use Bizum you only need to have a mobile phone and a bank account in any of the 30 banking brands that offer the service and that represent a market share of more than 99%.
Since its launch with the payment service for individuals, Bizum has gradually developed new use cases, such as payment in e-commerce (more than 50,000 businesses offer it) and the donation service for charitable causes. In addition, it has also launched the first in-person payment experience for betting payments and prize collection at the 10,000 state lottery and betting points of sale.
In 2023, the company has expanded its horizon with the digital identification service, so that users can identify themselves and access their accounts in online services and businesses. And always with the attributes that have made Bizum a successful payment solution: simple, fast, convenient and secure.
What's coming next for Bizum?
Bizum currently has more than 25 million users and the expression “make a Bizum” has become so popular that it is now part of the everyday language of Spaniards.
We continue working so that Bizum entities can incorporate new functionalities that will continue to extend their use, such as the extension of in-person payment, between professionals, or the payment of subscriptions.
Furthermore, Bizum's success in Spain and its extensive experience in immediate payments gives it the opportunity to also play a relevant role in cross-border payments and in the implementation of the future digital euro. In this regard, in mid-2022, Bizum joined EMPSA (European Mobile Payment Systems Association) with the aim of exploring the possibilities of a European mobile payment network.
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