A new instant-payment system modelled on Greece’s IRIS could allow customers of different Cypriot banks to transfer money within seconds from early 2027.
Work is expected to gather pace in September on a project that will allow people in Cyprus to transfer money using only a mobile phone number. The system will be based on Greece’s IRIS service but adapted for the Cypriot market.
In practice, it represents the second phase of the instant payments project, covering transactions completed within 10 seconds across all countries in the Single Euro Payments Area, or SEPA.
As Kathimerini reported several months ago, the “Cyprus IRIS” project will be implemented by JCC Payments in cooperation with Greece’s Interbanking Systems, known as DIAS. According to the latest information, although several issues still need to be agreed upon and common ground must be found, the project is progressing well.
The aim is to launch Cyprus IRIS in early 2027, as the original target of late 2026 now appears difficult to meet.
Instant payments will therefore become even easier during 2027. A customer of one Cypriot bank will be able to transfer money immediately to a customer of another Cypriot bank using only the recipient’s mobile phone number, without having to enter details such as an IBAN.
Under the arrangements agreed so far, Cyprus IRIS will operate within each bank’s existing mobile application as an “app within an app.”
Just as the Bank of Cyprus application has a QuickPay button and Eurobank offers Contact Pay, banking applications will include an IRIS button directing users to an instant-payment platform.
JCC Payments is already at an advanced stage of preparation. Under the agreement so far, it will be responsible for matching users with their mobile phone numbers, while DIAS will provide the system through which the money is transferred.
The reason JCC Payments was chosen as the Cypriot partner is clear. It is Cyprus’ largest organization for accepting and processing card transactions, and its main role is to provide data infrastructure and financial services to the banking and business sectors.
Its shareholders are the Bank of Cyprus and a banking consortium that includes Eurobank, the National Bank of Greece and Alpha Bank.
The second wave
During the first phase, bank customers will be able to transfer money to one another using only a mobile phone number.
The project is also designed to eventually include businesses, allowing so-called person-to-professional payments. This feature will almost certainly not be available when the service launches in early 2027, but it is already part of the plan.
The system is currently used in Greece. However, according to information available to Kathimerini, it has not achieved the same level of success as instant payments between individual bank customers.
Nevertheless, it is expected to be gradually embraced, just as transfers between individual bank customers have been.
The aim is to launch Cyprus IRIS in early 2027, effectively introducing the next phase of instant payments on the island.
Why DIAS?
DIAS began operating in 1989 and is Greece’s national clearing house for interbank payments.
Its shareholders include the Bank of Greece, Greek financial institutions, and legal entities whose main business activities involve payment services.
The company developed and operates the DIAS Payment System, through which domestic and cross-border electronic interbank payments are processed and cleared.
The system supports several payment methods, including credit transfers, direct debits, card payments, checks, and ATM transactions.
All banks operating in Greece participate in the DIAS Payment System, along with payment and electronic money institutions. Its connection to SEPA payment systems also provides access to payment service providers across the eurozone.
According to a DIAS press release issued in mid-July 2026, it is the only automated clearing house in Europe to have consistently recorded double-digit growth over the past five years. Based on its performance during the first half of 2026, it is expected to complete a sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth.
In 2025, the company processed 540.4 million transactions, an increase of 15.7%, with a total value of €544.4 billion. Its turnover reached €18.96 million, up 79.5% compared with 2020, while net profit stood at €7.66 million, an increase of 312.5% from 2020. Its return on equity rose to 27.2%, from 10% in 2020.
Between 2020 and 2025, total revenue increased by 84.5%, while total expenses rose by only 21.4%, resulting in net profitability more than quadrupling.
The launch of the “IRIS Everywhere” initiative and related legislation made Greece the first country in Europe to achieve universal acceptance of instant account-to-account payments at both physical and online points of sale.
IRIS currently serves 4.6 million individuals and 600,000 professionals. It is available at approximately 1.2 million point-of-sale terminals through dynamic QR codes and at 70,000 online stores. Relative to the size of the country, this has created one of Europe’s largest instant-payment acceptance networks.
In June 2026, instant payments accounted for 35.8% of transactions in Greece, up from just 3.3% at the end of 2021, bringing the country in line with the eurozone average.
DIAS’ participation in EuroPA, the European Payments Alliance, has also been particularly significant.
Since June 30, 2026, some 57.3 million people in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra have been able to make instant cross-border payments using only the recipient’s mobile phone number, through the national instant-payment service they already use.
By the end of the year, the initiative aims to reach more than 176 million people across 18 European countries, allowing them to exchange money instantly using their mobile phones.
