IRIS Payments Connects Greece to EuroPA for Instant Cross-Border Transfers

IRIS Payments begins cross-border interoperability through EuroPA

Greece’s IRIS Payments service has connected to the European Payments Alliance, or EuroPA, enabling instant cross-border person-to-person transfers between participating European payment services.

The connection was implemented through DIAS, Greece’s national interbank payment clearing institution.

From June 30, 2026, participating customers in Greece can send money to compatible users in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra.

Transfers can be initiated using the recipient’s mobile phone number, without requiring the sender to enter an IBAN manually.

National payment services connect through one network

EuroPA links several domestic account-to-account payment services, including IRIS Payments in Greece, Bizum in Spain, MB WAY in Portugal and BANCOMAT Pay in Italy.

These services were originally developed around domestic banking and payment infrastructure. EuroPA provides an interoperability layer that allows users of one participating service to transfer funds to users of another.

The customer can continue using a familiar banking application while the transaction is routed between different national payment systems.

Eurobank confirmed that its customers can use the feature through the Eurobank Mobile App. Industry reporting also identified Piraeus Bank and Viva.com among the initial participating Greek providers.

The first phase is limited to person-to-person transfers

The initial rollout covers transfers between individuals.

It does not yet represent a general launch of cross-border IRIS payments for online stores, physical merchants or business recipients.

Eurobank said merchant payments are planned for a later stage of the interoperability programme. Businesses should therefore avoid treating the current launch as evidence that IRIS merchant acceptance is already available across all EuroPA markets.

This distinction matters because person-to-person transfers and merchant payments involve different acceptance, reconciliation, refund and regulatory requirements.

Transfers use European instant-payment infrastructure

The cross-border service is based on the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme, which supports euro transfers processed within seconds.

Transactions also use Strong Customer Authentication in line with European security requirements.

DIAS handles the routing and clearing connection between participating Greek institutions and the other European payment schemes.

This structure allows domestic payment brands to retain their existing customer interfaces while using common standards to exchange transactions across borders.

Why interoperability matters for local payments

Local account-to-account payment services have often been limited by national boundaries.

A Greek customer may be familiar with IRIS, while users in Spain, Portugal or Italy rely on different services. Interoperability allows these domestic systems to communicate without requiring every customer to adopt the same application or payment brand.

For users, the visible experience remains based on a familiar bank app and mobile-number contact. Behind the interface, the transaction must still be routed and cleared between separate national services.

For payment providers, this creates requirements around recipient matching, fraud controls, authentication, transaction status and cross-border reconciliation.

EuroPA plans further expansion

The participating organisations expect EuroPA to add more countries and users over time.

The network also plans to introduce merchant-payment use cases after the initial person-to-person phase.

These expansion plans remain forward-looking and should not be presented as completed coverage until the additional markets and use cases have formally launched.