# MB WAY-Bizum Link: Portugal-Spain Payments Without IBANs

> MB WAY and Spain's Bizum are building towards phone-number-only cross-border payments, via a new European Network for Payments launched 30 September 2026.

- Source: https://www.growinportugal.com/news/mb-way-takes-a-step-toward-cross-border-payments-with-spain-2026-10-02
- Publisher: GrowIN Portugal (https://www.growinportugal.com)
- Published: 2026-10-02
- Last reviewed: 2026-10-02
- Language: en

> **Key figures — as of 2026-10-02:** New European Network for Payments (ENP) announced 30 September 2026, headquartered in Madrid — founding members Bancomat (Italy), Bizum (Spain), EPI/Wero, SIBS–MB WAY (Portugal) and Vipps MobilePay — combined reach already ~130 million users across 13 countries (≈72% of the EU + Norway population) — MB WAY, Bizum and Bancomat already run live cross-border P2P transfers since 31 March 2025, covering Portugal, Spain, Italy and Andorra — full phone-number-based P2P rollout targeted through 2026, with e-commerce and in-store payments following in 2027.

## A phone number instead of an IBAN

Portugal's SIBS has joined Italy's Bancomat, Spain's Bizum, the EPI/Wero consortium and the Nordic Vipps MobilePay to create the European Network for Payments, a Madrid-based entity announced on 30 September 2026 to run and expand interoperability between their mobile payment apps. Sending money through MB WAY to someone using Spain's Bizum is part of the plan behind a new European payments network, with Portugal's SIBS joining Bancomat, Bizum, EPI/Wero, and Vipps MobilePay to establish the organisation, based in Madrid. The partners say each service will keep its own brand and familiar user experience, with the aim of letting those existing services work together across borders.

For anyone living between Lisbon and Madrid, or just visiting family on either side of the border, this matters because it points towards a future where sending €40 for dinner or splitting an Airbnb doesn't require typing out a 24-digit Spanish IBAN or a 25-digit Portuguese one — just a mobile number.

## It's already working, quietly

This isn't a concept on paper. On 31 March 2025, Bancomat, Bizum and MB Way launched their first instant cross-border transactions, following a pilot phase through EuroPA, the alliance the three firms formed in late 2023. By mid-2026 that corridor had scaled up: EuroPA allows interoperability between BANCOMAT, Bizum and MB WAY, connecting more than 50 million users and 186 financial institutions in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Andorra, with more than 2 billion transactions carried out in 2024. A merchant-facing proof of concept went further still, with MB WAY users in Portugal able to perform QR-code-based payments at merchants in Italy's and Wero's networks, confirming the plumbing works beyond simple peer-to-peer transfers.

The September announcement folds that existing Iberian-Italian network into something larger. Together, the five founding solutions already serve approximately 130 million users across 13 European countries — more than 70% of the EU and Norway's combined population. The phased rollout is planned to start with cross-border peer-to-peer payments, with e-commerce and point-of-sale payments to follow in subsequent phases.

## GrowIN's read on the numbers

Here's the arithmetic worth flagging: the pre-existing Bizum-Bancomat-MB WAY corridor across Spain, Italy, Portugal and Andorra already covers roughly 50–58 million users on its own. If the new five-partner network totals around 130 million across 13 countries, the nine newer members added through EPI/Wero and Vipps MobilePay are contributing an average of only around 8 million users apiece — meaning the Iberian-Italian corridor that already includes Portugal and Spain remains, by some distance, the most mature and heavily used part of the whole network. In plain terms: the Portugal-Spain link isn't a side project bolted onto something bigger elsewhere — it's the proven core the rest of Europe is now building around.

A Bizum executive framed the ambition in similarly structural terms: "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."

**As GrowIN Portugal Editorial puts it: for foreigners juggling bills on both sides of the border, the IBAN may be about to become optional, not essential.**

## What this actually changes for foreigners

For now, nothing changes technically if you're sending money today — MB WAY to Bizum transfers using just a phone number have been live since March 2025 for users whose banks have adhered to the EuroPA framework, and by June 2025 all participating banks in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Andorra were expected to be connected, with each institution informing its customers once the service became available. Check with your own bank whether it's plugged in — adherence has been gradual rather than universal.

The practical implication for the growing population of remote workers, retirees and cross-border commuters splitting rent, childcare or weekend trips between Porto and Vigo, or Lisbon and Seville, is fewer failed transfers from typo'd IBANs and fewer multi-day waits for SEPA transfers to clear. It won't replace a Portuguese bank account or your NIF for anything formal — tax filings, rent contracts, utility direct debits — but it narrows the everyday friction of living a genuinely binational life. Anyone setting up finances after a move should still start with the basics covered in our [relocation](/relocation/) guide, since mobile payment apps work alongside a proper Portuguese bank account, not instead of one.

## What to watch next

The MoU roadmap includes cross-border peer-to-peer payments in 2026 and expansion to ecommerce and point-of-sale payments in 2027 — so the next milestone to watch is whether SIBS and Bizum extend today's P2P-only link to in-store card-less payments, meaning a Portuguese resident could eventually tap to pay in a Madrid shop using MB WAY alone. No regulator has published a binding deadline yet, and as with any new financial infrastructure, early adopters should confirm with their own bank that cross-border transfers are active before relying on them for anything time-sensitive.

## Sources

- [The Portugal News](https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2026-10-01/mb-way-takes-another-step-towards-payments-across-europe/1094603)
- [European Network for Payments (joint press release)](https://epicompany.eu/media-insights/european-network-for-payments/)
- [Bancomat — EuroPA press release](https://bancomat.it/en/press-releases/international-instant-payments-bancomat-bizum-mbway-underway)
- [The Paypers — cross-border QR payment PoC](https://thepaypers.com/payments/news/bancomat-epi-sibs-mb-way-complete-cross-border-qr-payment-interoperability-poc)

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© GrowIN Portugal. Cite as: GrowIN Portugal, "MB WAY-Bizum Link: Portugal-Spain Payments Without IBANs", https://www.growinportugal.com/news/mb-way-takes-a-step-toward-cross-border-payments-with-spain-2026-10-02