There are over 1 million users of the IRIS service with which we can transfer money to our friends knowing only a phone number, without IBAN, from our bank’s mobile app in a few seconds.
According to the data presented by the CEO of DIAS Mr. Stavroula Kambouridou at the conference “Future of Retail 2022” organized by the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce & Entrepreneurship (ESEE), the use of the IRIS P2P service (Person to Person) increased fivefold (+5 %) in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period two years earlier. As Ms. Kambouridou explained, a company can now share the account (eg in the restaurant) by transferring money to each other through the IRIS option available to the partner banks in their mobile app (Alpha Bank, National Bank, Eurobank, Piraeus Bank).
An extension of this service is IRIS P2B (Person to Business), ie direct payments to professionals / small businesses, a service in which the registered professional bank accounts currently reach 69,000. The benefits of the service are, for businesses or professionals, that they receive debts from their customers within seconds. For the customers, that they make their payments knowing only the mobile number or the VAT number of the company, without knowing the IBAN. All that is needed is for both parties to have activated the IRIS service in mobile banking. For further convenience of the customer, the company can provide the mobile or TIN number in the form of a QR code to be scanned from the customer’s mobile banking app.
Payment of debts with QR code
Payment with RF / QR code is an additional option available to citizens, either for payment of traffic fees, or e-paravolou to the State, or for payment of Energy, Telecommunications, etc. bills. According to the latest data from DIAS, 8 out of 10 organizations / companies that cooperate with DIAS have adopted the new payment model, which, according to Ms. Kambouridou, “until November 2023 will be the new normality (new normal ) “.
Immediate payments
In addition, after connecting to the TIPS system last December, Greece belongs to the group of 27 countries in the European SEPA area that can send and receive direct payments within 10 seconds. In the last year, there has been a 100% increase in direct payments (intant payments) in our country, said Ms. Kambouridou.
E-shops are gaining share – International trends
The use of the IRIS service for electronic purchases (IRIS eCommerce) in the first quarter of 2022 also recorded an impressive 235% increase compared to the same period two years earlier. By pressing the IRIS button, consumers can pay in e-shops directly from their bank account, without using a card. This possibility is currently offered to their customers by the cooperating banks (Alpha Bank, National Bank, Eurobank, Piraeus Bank, and Viva wallet).
“What we have seen over the last two years, due to the pandemic, is that the number of consumers shopping online has increased significantly. Most of them, in fact, use their mobile phones instead of their laptops or desktops. According to the trends that are forming “Internationally, 56% of consumers prefer contactless transactions, while 61% avoid having a physical wallet with them. The trend today is to make our payments from the digital wallet we have on our mobile phone, ensuring convenience, immediacy and security.” , said Mrs. Kambouridou.
Indeed, the pandemic has acted as a catalyst for payments internationally, accelerating the shift of citizens to digital means of payment to the detriment of cash transactions, Ms. Kambouridou noted. Now, less than half of consumers (46%) use cash on a weekly basis, while 67% say they use their mobile phone more for payments today compared to two years ago. Under these conditions, the interbank transactions carried out through the DIAS systems increased by 17% in 2021 compared to 2020, said Ms. Kambouridou. He also noted that out of the 330 million transactions settled by DIAS last year, the interbank ATM was only 6.4 million transactions (ie <2% of the total).
Source: Capital
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