Bancomat, SIBS-MB WAY, and EPI Company have announced the successful completion of a joint proof of concept (PoC) demonstrating interoperability between their respective mobile payment solutions for cross-border in-store transactions.
The PoC validated that users of each participating application, Bancomat in Italy, EPI's Wero across its markets, and MB WAY in Portugal, can perform QR-code-based person-to-merchant payments at merchants in each other's networks.
The exercise was conducted with the operational support of La Banque Postale, Intesa Sanpaolo, and the 28 financial institutions that are members of MB WAY. It confirms the technical and operational feasibility of a common central interoperability model enabling mobile payment applications from different European countries to function across borders without replacing domestic brands.
MoU framework and roadmap
The PoC is a concrete outcome of the Memorandum of Understanding signed on 2 February 2026 between Bancomat, Bizum, EPI, SIBS-MB WAY, and Vipps MobilePay. Together, the five solutions serve approximately 130 million users across 13 European countries, representing roughly 72% of the EU and Norway's combined population.
The MoU roadmap includes cross-border peer-to-peer payments in 2026 and expansion to ecommerce and point-of-sale payments in 2027, including the completion of NFC-based point-of-sale payment interoperability. The initiative is designed to build pan-European payment coverage on existing national solutions through a central interoperability hub, rather than through the creation of a new pan-European brand or the displacement of established domestic schemes.
Talking about the move, Fabrizio Burlando, CEO of Bancomat, said the PoC demonstrates that Europe can achieve genuine interoperability by building on its own strengths. Expanding on this, Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI, noted that cross-border payments with local schemes will, step by step, become the norm across Europe. Teresa Mesquita, Executive Board Member and COO of SIBS, added that the PoC lays the foundations of a truly interoperable European ecosystem that is independent and resilient.
