Greece’s instant payments platform IRIS has grown into one of Europe’s most advanced payment infrastructures, but its next challenge is convincing consumers to use it for everyday purchases, the CEO of payments operator DIAS said.
IRIS is now used by 4.6 million citizens, more than 600,000 professionals, about 70,000 online stores and 1.2 million point-of-sale terminals, DIAS CEO Stavroula Kambouridou said at the company’s shareholders’ meeting Thursday.
The system also joined the European Payments Alliance (EuroPA) network in late June, allowing instant cross-border transfers with Spain, Portugal and Italy using only a recipient’s mobile phone number.
Kambouridou said the platform’s broad availability does not automatically translate into widespread use. The next phase, she said, is moving from “IRIS everywhere” to “pay with IRIS.”
While IRIS payments at physical stores became mandatory for merchants in December, consumer use remains limited. About 330,000 in-store transactions worth slightly more than 14 million euros were recorded in the first half of the year.
