At the beginning of September, the crucial meeting of JCC Payments with the members of the Association of Cyprus Banks (Bank of Cyprus, Eurobank Ltd, Alpha Bank Cyprus, Ancoria Bank, National Bank of Greece (Cyprus) Ltd, Cyprus Development Bank (CDB Bank, Societe Gererale Cyprus, Housing Finance Organization) is expected to take place. According to information from Phileleftheros, the subject of the first substantive meeting is the evaluation of technical and procedural issues with the aim of creation of the Cyprus system of instant payments by mobile phone number, without the customer's IBAN number in the standards of the Greek IRIS. The project will be implemented by JCC Payments together with the Greek company "Interbank Systems (DIAS)".
What does this mean in practice and how will it affect the daily transactions of banks, when it takes place, and is estimated around the first quarter of 2027. The customer of one bank will be able to send money to the customer of another bank only with the mobile number, the operation will be completed in a short period of a few seconds, with the beneficiary and the principal being informed accordingly for its successful completion.
Convenience in everyday life
The change being promoted will be more evident in small, everyday transactions. Transferring money between friends, paying a bill, returning money to a relative or paying a small obligation will be able to be done from the mobile phone, without the sender looking for the recipient's bank account through the IBAN. At the same time, the use of instant payments can reduce reliance on traditional payment methods and reduce costs for specific categories of transactions. The big bet, however, will be mass adoption by banks, businesses and consumers.
Controls and limits in the spotlight
At the table of the meeting between JCC and the banks, which will take place in the coming days, which will be the initial one to put issues on the table, the procedural and technical issues will be found, as well as the individual details that will have to be determined before the start of the implementation of this major project.
Particular emphasis is expected to be placed on the safeguards that should be integrated into the system, so that transactions are carried out safely and the risks of errors, fraud or malicious use are reduced.
It should be clarified how much is the maximum amount of sending from a customer of one bank to another bank only with the mobile number, what will be restrictions and the security checks that will be carried out. At the same time, any daily or other limits, the procedures for identifying the beneficiary, the controls to prevent fraud, as well as the mechanisms that will be activated in case of suspicious or incorrect transaction should be determined.
At the same time, JCC and banks will be asked to agree on a specific implementation schedule, with the planning pointing towards the first quarter of 2027.
The September meeting is therefore considered pivotal, as it is expected to clarify the technical specifications, the requirements that the banks will have to meet and the steps required until the activation of the service.
If the timetable under discussion leads to implementation in the first quarter of 2027, Cyprus will take an important step towards a new model of daily payments, with the possible prospect of fast, cheap cross-border transactions with Greece or other countries.
Possibilities with the EuroPA initiative
Greece has joined the European network EuroPA, paving the way for instant payments without IBANs, and the possibility is provided through the participation of DIAS S.A. in the European initiative EuroPA (European Payments Alliance), which connects national instant payment platforms. EuroPA is the largest initiative to date to interconnect national instant payment systems in Europe. It started with the cooperation of the Portuguese MB WAY, the Spanish Bizum and the Italian BANCOMAT, while Greece has now joined IRIS. At the same time, the Polish BLIK, the Bulgarian Blink and the Scandinavian Vipps MobilePay are participating or are in the process of joining, gradually expanding coverage beyond the Eurozone.
The aim of the initiative is to create a single European account-to-account payment network, where every citizen will continue to use their national system, but will be able to carry out cross-border transactions with the same ease as a domestic payment currently does. In the first stage, IRIS Payments users in Greece can make money transfers to users of similar services in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra, exclusively using the recipient's mobile phone number.
The interconnection of IRIS with EuroPA is one of the most important developments in recent years in European digital payments. The ability to send money only with a mobile number, without the use of IBAN, brings the experience of instant payments closer to the daily lives of millions of Europeans and strengthens the position of European infrastructures vis-à-vis international payment providers. If the venture is successfully extended to payments to businesses, it can be the foundation of a truly single European digital ecosystem.
The window to Greece and Europe
The Greek Interbank Systems (DIAS) is also involved in the project, which has the know-how from the operation of IRIS in Greece. At the same time, the cooperation with JCC creates the conditions for the Cypriot system not to be an isolated national solution, but to be able to be interconnected with European instant payment systems in the future. For Cyprus, the perspective is particularly important. If the new system is designed in a way that allows for future interoperability, it could pave the way for fast and low-cost transactions between Cyprus and Greece, but also more broadly with other European markets. Thus, a Cypriot customer could potentially send money to a beneficiary in Greece using only their mobile number, while a user in Greece could make a transfer to Cyprus without having to know the recipient's IBAN.
