Spanish banks are taking a new step to chip away at the dominance of US payment systems such as Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. by offering a new bank-to-bank payment system in stores.

Bizum SL, a consortium of more than 30 Spanish banks including CaixaBank SA, Banco Santander SA and BBVA SA, has launched a system that allows customers to transfer money directly from their bank account to a merchant using tap-to-pay on their mobile phones, according to a company statement. The product, known as Bizum Pay, includes a digital wallet app that allows for instant transfers.

Bizum is Spain’s first effort to provide an alternative to US systems, as more European countries push for payments sovereignty and greater control over their financial infrastructure. Other efforts across Europe include Blik in Poland, Swish in Sweden and Brussels-based Wero, which plans to launch in-store payments across Europe next year.

Visa and Mastercard handle the bulk of Europe’s credit and debit card payments online and in-store, and collect fees from merchants’ and customers’ banks to cover costs including processing and fraud prevention. Unwinding dependence on international systems is also difficult and expensive — both have spent decades and billions of dollars building their infrastructure.

“In a context dominated by non-European providers, there is a growing interest in alternatives of strategic autonomy,” said Fernando Rodriguez, deputy managing director of international expansion at Bizum. “We offer an option to reduce the number of players in the chain.”

Bizum previously only allowed for peer-to-peer transfers, processing €67.8 billion ($77.5 billion) of transactions last year, according to the firm. It’s now bringing its systems to customer-to-merchant transactions, with banks in Bizum participating on both ends, running customer accounts and at least 60% of Spain’s point-of-sale terminals.

“In Spain, we have the particularity that POS payment terminals in stores fall under the control of our banking entities, while in other countries it might not be the case and they rely on different players,” Rodriguez said.

The consortium launched Bizum Pay last week with a digital wallet where users can store Bizum, along with cards issued by other firms. Eventually, it wants participating banks to offer the option to pay merchants with Bizum within their own apps, though some haven’t implemented this yet.

CaixaBank will initially rely on the rollout of Bizum Pay via the external app and does not currently plan to integrate Bizum Pay into the main CaixaBank app, although it does not dismiss the option in the future, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

BBVA already had a wireless payment wallet within its app, where Bizum Pay has been added, alongside Visa- and Mastercard-issued cards, according to a company’s spokesperson.

Alternative Systems

Bizum said the deployment of the payment system within banks’ apps will be gradual over the coming months and that it aims to provide alternatives in the market.

“Banks have an incentive to create an alternative that could ultimately bypass Visa and Mastercard — at a time that European regulators see relevance in pursuing sovereignty,” said Cecilia Rikap, an associate professor of economics at University College London.

For Spanish banks, the initiative also provides a privately managed alternative to the European Central Bank’s digital euro effort, which would reduce reliance on US networks.

“Visa welcomes competition as it enables choice for consumers, businesses and the broader payments ecosystem,” a spokesperson for Visa said in an emailed statement.

The Visa representative said the company is actively working with Bizum Pay and Spanish banks and Visa cards can be added to Bizum’s digital wallet. A Mastercard spokesperson separately said the firm has also partnered with Bizum.

“Bizum Pay could allow Spanish banks to improve product cross-selling and could incentivize households to maintain higher average current account balances, which could represent a small tailwind for net interest income,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Pablo de la Torre Cuevas. On the other hand, it would likely reduce payments-related fee income, he said.

Large Spanish retailers have also supported the payment trials and Bizum is expecting “a migration of about 30 to 40% of payment due to local affinity,” according to the company.

A representative for Mercadona SA, the largest grocery chain in Spain, said that Bizum Pay isn’t available for customers, and the company will follow its rollout before deciding to offer it.

— By Nil Codina Martinez (Bloomberg News)