A popular person-to-person payments app in Italy is getting the backing of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank to become an option at the point of sale in more than 150 retail stores in Milan, Rome and Turin.
The Jiffy P-to-P app, which claims more than 4.2 million users and the support of more than 120 Italian banks, enables subscribers to send and receive money in real time from their phones' contact lists.
The Italian payments processor SIA and the financial services provider GFT Technologies initially developed Jiffy as a P-to-P service more than two years ago, expanding at that time into Germany.
SIA has called Jiffy the most prominent P-to-P app in the eurozone, and the company said this week that Intesa Sanpaolo will promote the service as a QR-code based payment option in retail settings. After customers view the details of the payment on the Jiffy app, they can authorize with a fingerprint or a PIN.
SIA says it conducted trials of in-store payments with local bank UBI Banca in Milan and Bergamo a year ago.
Like other P-to-P mobile wallets in Europe, SIA says Jiffy is looking to initiate payments online, in top retail markets and general P-to-P money transfers from a direct connection with the customer’s payment account at one of the participating banks.
Jiffy complies with the Single Euro Payments Area credit transfer system and will be able to integrate with Pan-European instant payments infrastructure, which is targeted for clearing later this year.
