European Mobile Payment Interoperability Continues to Grow: Greek DIAS S.A. Joins EMPSA
DIAS S.A. of Greece is joining the European Mobile Payment Systems Association as its 16th member, further bolstering the association’s growth.
Zurich/Athens, December 20, 2022 – The European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA) continues to grow. DIAS S.A. of Greece is joining EMPSA as the 16th member. The number of European markets represented within EMPSA climbs to 17. More than 1.3 million consumers currently use IRIS Payments in Greece, DIAS’ account-to-account digital and mobile payment solution that enables digital e-commerce payments, instant person-to-person and person-to-business transfers and is currently offered by several Greek banks. “We are delighted to join EMPSA and have the chance to contribute to Europe-wide interoperability between various mobile payment systems, which transform the European payment market into a more sovereign and resilient one. We are seeking a prosperous and mutually beneficial relationship, through which we will participate in innovative projects and initiatives, provide our areas of expertise and experience, enhance our practise and knowledge in cutting-edge payment trends, leading to the further development of our services. We are determined to lay the foundations for a fruitful partnership, which will benefit the Greek financial ecosystem in total. Our cooperation will lead to a stronger, more modern, and more effective payment reality throughout Europe”, stated CEO of DIAS S.A., Stavroula Kampouridou.
The addition of the Greek payment market to the pan-European interoperability platform solidifies EMPSA’s reach in now 17 European markets with more than 90 million consumers. “Our vision is to allow every European citizen to use the mobile payment solution of their choice across Europe. We all benefit from the successes of the various domestic mobile payment champions succeeding throughout Europe. We very much welcome Greece, one of the most remarkable travel destinations for fellow Europeans. Payment interoperability has the potential to benefit European travellers, domestic merchants, and their issuing and acquiring banks alike,” says EMPSA Chairman Christian Pirkner.
Building a Europe-wide sovereign payment system from the bottom up
EMPSA´s approach to establishing a scalable Europe-wide payment system is based on connecting existing national mobile payment leaders. This bottom-up approach allows for creating European payment sovereignty without having to build new infrastructure from the ground up. Even more importantly, national mobile payment champions can continue to focus on their customers’ needs and create local use-cases for them while becoming interoperable across Europe. “The interoperability of European payment systems will strengthen Europe as an economic power, because a sovereign and independent European payment system can react to pressure from overseas more resiliently and more agile. Not just European banks will benefit from this innovation, but especially merchants and consumers,” concludes Pirkner.
About EMPSA
The European Mobile Payment Association (EMPSA) consists of 16 members in 17 European Markets, representing more than 90 million users, more than one million merchants and hundreds of European Banks. Current members include: BAMCARD (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Bankart (Slovenia), BANCOMAT (Italy), Bancontact Payconiq Company (Belgium), Bizum (Spain), BLIK (Poland), BORICA AD (Bulgaria), Bluecode (Austria and Germany), DIAS S.A. (Greece) iDEAL (Netherlands), MobilePay (Denmark and Finland), Plick (Italy), SIBS (Portugal), Swish (Sweden), TWINT (Switzerland) und Vipps (Norway). Further information: www.empsa.org.
About DIAS S.A. and IRIS Payments
The company Interbanking Systems S.A. under the distinctive title DIAS S.A. serves as the Greek hub of credit transfers and direct debits and has developed and is responsible for the operation of DIAS Payment System through which domestic and cross-border interbank payments are cleared and settled. Most credit, payment and electronic money institutions operating in Greece and some in Cyprus participate in DIAS Payment System. At the same time, its connection to other payment systems operating within the Single European Payments Area (SEPA) provides access to PSPs within the Euro Area.
DIAS has a significant presence in the field of “account to account” transactions. In cooperation with Greek banks, it introduced the IRIS Payments solution. During the last two years, IRIS has followed a significant upward trend. More specifically, the 1st 11 months of 2022 the number of IRIS Person-to-Person (P2P) transactions was higher by 206% YoY and higher by 639% compared to the same period in 2020.
As the prevailing trend in the European payment sector is the development of instant payments as well as the enforcement of European e-commerce and digital payments, DIAS S.A. is confident that the IRIS Payments solution will continue to further strengthen its impressive course within the next years.
Press inquiries
EMPSA
Brendan Philipp
E: press@empsa.org
M: +43 1 803 30 84 16
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