European countries have decided to connect their national instant payment systems through a new company, the European Network for Payments, which will have its headquarters in Madrid, according to ABC España.
The initiative is to begin in thirteen countries and will reach more than 130 million users, the newspaper reports. Transfers between individuals are expected to start in 2027, with the system later extending into commerce.
ABC España presents the selection of Madrid as recognition of the part played by Bizum, a solution that emerged from Spanish banking and, in the paper's view, shows that effective innovation is not always a matter of inventing dazzling technologies but of solving everyday problems well.
"Effective innovation does not always consist of inventing dazzling technologies, but of efficiently resolving everyday matters" — ABC España.
The paper places Bizum within a Spanish tradition of practical ingenuity, pointing to Chupa Chups and the mop as examples of simple ideas that became universal successes.
