Greece has officially joined the European Payments Alliance (EuroPA), taking a decisive step toward unified interoperability for account-to-account (A2A) instant payments across Europe.
The announcement was made during the 9th Payments 360° Conference powered by DIAS, in the presence of senior executives from European payment systems and representatives of the Greek Government. A key milestone in this new partnership for DIAS S.A. was the signing of the Letter of Intent on stage by representatives of the four national schemes participating in the first phase of the initiative: DIAS (Greece), SIBS (Portugal), Bizum (Spain) and BANCOMAT (Italy) – see photo.
Through the IRIS Payments, DIAS further simplifies instant mobile payments within Europe for its more than 4 million active users, contributing to the formation of a unified network expected to serve over 105 million citizens across 10 European countries: Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Andorra.
Stavroula Kampouridou, CEO of DIAS, stated during the panel discussion:
„DIAS will be technically ready to support IRIS P2P transactions via EuroPA in the first half of 2026. Greece is now positioned on the new map of European payments. Instant payments are no longer just a national matter — they are the pathway to European sovereignty in payments.”
Greece’s participation in EuroPA marks a continuation of DIAS’s institutional trajectory and strategic direction, implemented in collaboration with the country’s banking sector, the Bank of Greece, and the Greek State.
Interoperability of A2A solutions between the participating countries is both technically and institutionally supported by the European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA), of which DIAS is an active member. EuroPA complements other European initiatives such as Wero/EPI and represents a pragmatic step toward realizing the vision of a unified real-time electronic payments market.
Instant payments adoption in Greece
Instant payments through the IRIS system have surged dramatically, according to official figures. In 2024, Greece’s interbanking system DIAS processed 467.2 million transactions totaling 501.9 billion euros— a year-on-year increase of 15.1% in volume and 11.6% in value compared to 2023.
A particularly striking trend was seen in instant credit transfers, which soared to 70.6 million transactions in 2024 — a remarkable 92.1% increase over the previous year.
IRIS is also expanding in the commercial sector, with more than 8,000 businesses and online stores having already integrated IRIS Commerce. With new legislation coming into effect by the end of 2025 requiring all legal entities in Greece — both physical and online — to accept instant payments alongside card payments, a major expansion is expected. From November 1, 2025, accepting IRIS payments will be mandatory for all businesses and legal entities in the country.
IRIS P2P transactions for the first quarter of 2025 reached 17,518,770 — more than double the 8,836,268 transactions recorded in the same period last year, marking a 98.3% increase.
More details here
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DIAS S.A. (Hellenic Interbank Systems) is the national payments clearing hub in Greece, operating the infrastructure for interbank transactions, the IRIS instant payments platform, and IBAN data matching services. DIAS is an active member of institutional European bodies such as EACHA, EPC, and EMPSA.
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