Bizum in-store payments reach 1.6 million merchants in Spain

Bizum's in-store payment service has reached 1.6 million Spanish establishments, around 75 percent of the country's bank card terminals, and is now switched on for 20 million users, 60 percent of the platform's base. The phased rollout began on 18 May 2026 and is meant to reach most of Bizum's 32 million users by December. CaixaBank, BBVA, Sabadell, Unicaja, Bankinter and Abanca are live; Santander has not activated it yet.

Spain's instant-payment scheme has moved from a phone-to-phone transfer app onto the physical terminal estate at card-network scale, without merchants buying hardware, because the existing Redsys and Cecabank Android terminals carry it. That is the A2A-at-the-counter move every European domestic scheme is attempting, and Bizum is the first to reach three quarters of a national terminal base. Every transaction it takes at the till is a card transaction that no longer pays interchange or scheme fees.

When Santander activates, what share of Spanish POS volume Bizum actually takes rather than merely being accepted at, and whether acquirers price Bizum acceptance below card rates.

• rtvc.es
• Que.es