On September 1, Bizum registered its trading record. It was Friday of a holiday week and between comings and goings and settling accounts, the Spaniards made 3.4 million bizum during the day, the highest figure to date. The average per second amounted to 40.
Bizum alludes to this milestone to underline the success of this payment solution, unique in Europe despite its simplicity: it is still a shared directory of data between the main banks established in the country. Its merit lies not so much in technology as in the unusual willingness of entities to join forces.
The payment solution has also just reached 25 million customers, which is equivalent to more than half of the Spanish population, as Bizum itself announced today. Its market share has reached 99%, which is equivalent to saying that, when two people want to make an instant mobile payment in Spain, they do it through this channel.
Its latest data also shows that as of October 20, 710 million operations have been carried out, which, divided by 25 million users, is equivalent to 28 bizum per person. The volume moved has been 39,000 million euros, which in just ten months is equivalent to a third of the 120,000 million euros in transactions since bizum began operating in 2016.
The exponential growth is also seen in the number of transactions. In its seven years of life, 2,250 million bizum have been made, but of this figure a third corresponds to the first ten months of this year.
For Bizum, the challenge now lies in the new payment methods, especially in relation to electronic commerce and in operations with the State Lottery and Betting Society (SLAE).
According to the figures offered today, there are already more than 52,000 electronic businesses that accept payments, to which are added more than 10,000 physical lottery points of sale. The number of social causes that have a Bizum code to receive donations is now 8,800.
“We are seeing how Bizum is not only consolidating, but also growing the tendency to be one of the preferred payment methods for users,” says Ángel Nigorra, general director of the firm.
The bizum can be done in Spain and Andorra. At the moment there is no similar model at the European level, but banks are working on different proposals to create a European system.
The ECB is also developing the digital euro, although it wants to do so without hindering private initiative. For this reason, one of the proposals is that the virtual euro wallet cannot have more than 3,000 euros, in order not to replace current accounts or interbank payment systems.
