The connection with Norwegian (through Vipps MobilePay) and Polish (Blik) cell phones for making immediate transfers could be made within “a few months”, according to the director of MobilePay, Rune Garborg, quoted by the Spanish newspaper El Economista.

Since the end of March, MB Way users have been able to make immediate transfers to Spain and Italy as part of the partnership that SIBS has established with entities in those two countries under the European Payments Alliance (EuroPA) agreement.

The Vipps MobilePay platform has over 12 million users in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Polish Blic adds another 18.5 million.

The Spanish newspaper highlights that these moves come at a time when bridges are being built between the two large consortiums that until recently competed to create the future pan-European payments project.

EuroPA — of which SIBS is a part — is in talks with the European Payments Initiative, which pioneered the Wero scheme, which operates in much the same way but is backed by banks in Germany, France and Belgium.