Bizum Pay goes live in Spanish shops, taking account-to-account payments to the terminal

Bizum launched its own NFC wallet app on 14 July 2026, letting users pay in physical shops straight from a bank account by unlocking the phone and holding it to the terminal (double-press of the side button on iPhone). Bizum says the app is already accepted at more than one million Spanish terminals, roughly 60 percent of the installed estate, because merchants enable it through their bank rather than replacing hardware. It is available on Android and iOS, and Bizum states the same protections apply as to card payments.

Bizum already carries the Spanish P2P habit; extending it to the till turns a transfer scheme into an acceptance brand and puts account-to-account payment in front of the card schemes at the point of sale, in the one European market where consumer adoption is already there. For acquirers it is a new acceptance rail to support at effectively zero terminal cost, and for issuers it is interchange income at risk.

How merchant activation converts into actual in-store transaction share, and whether other domestic schemes copy the enable-through-the-bank route rather than a hardware programme.

• eldiario.es