The global payment landscape is rapidly changing driven by a seismic shift in popular transaction methods. A closer look at payment statistics reveals that account-to-account (A2A) transfers are ascending in importance. Its growing dominance among other payment types is especially evident in the European market.
An ordinary consumer or a merchant rarely wonders what happens behind the curtains of their daily transactions. Whether you buy a cup of coffee or pay contractors – what you really care about is for the money transfer to be quick, simple to make and safe. There are different means to achieve that goal. Today, however, A2A payments are gaining prominence, standing out among their more traditional counterparts.
A2A Payments In A Nutshell
Account-to-account transfers happen exactly as described, from one bank account to another without numerous intermediaries, such as credit or debit card networks. They do not require card details, account numbers or sort codes, making them an ideal choice for modern customers who are always on the go. Besides, such transactions often go without any associated fees, or charge much lower costs compared to traditional payment methods.
A2A payments are used in various transaction settings, including peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, e-commerce purchases, business payments to suppliers, contractors, or employees, international money transfers (remittances), etc.
They work very simply. A payer logs into their online or mobile banking service and enters the recipient account details, email, or phone number. Often, all they need to do is choose a recipient from the contact list. The transaction is authenticated through secure methods like biometrics, a PIN, or two-factor authentication (2FA) and processed via some kind of a Real-Time Payment Network. Both parties’ banks reconcile the transaction without intermediaries. Often this process is facilitated by API-based platforms.
A2A payments typically clear immediately or within a few minutes. The payer and recipient both get transaction confirmation notifications right away.
The Share of A2A Payments Is Growing
How significant are account-to-account transfers today? Let’s get some perspective:
- Capgemini estimates suggest A2A payments could counterbalance 15-25% of future card transaction volume growth;
- Europe’s A2A payment volumes are expected to grow by 30% this year;
- By the end of 2025, one in four Europeans is expected to adopt A2A payments for online purchases, with that number projected to rise to three in four by 2029;
- Popular European A2A payment providers process close to a hundred million transactions per month: Poland’s BLIK is running at more than 180 million, the Netherland’s IDEAL boasts more than 120 million and Sweden’s Swish – more than 83 million;
- Annual spending with iDEAL in Netherlands is now almost as high as that with debit cards nationwide;
- Spanish A2A solution, one of the fastest-growing payment methods of this type, Bizum has aggregated more than 28.5 million users in Spain (more than half of the local population), processing around 80 transactions per month;
- A2A payments made up 17% of total domestic e-commerce transaction value in Europe in 2024;
- Globally, the volume of A2A transactions is projected to increase from 60 billion in 2024 to 186 billion by 2029, illustrating a 209% growth over five years.
- In 2022, the total value of A2A e-commerce transactions was $525 billion, with projections to reach $850 billion by 2026.
Projects Facilitating A2A Adoption in Europe and Beyond
As the region with one of the most pronounced growth levels for A2A payments around the world, Europe boasts a few notable fintech solutions that are highly popular in their home countries.
BLIK (Poland)
A2A payments are very widespread among local merchants in Poland. Almost 70% of local e-commerce transactions occur directly between bank accounts. This mainstream use occurs largely due to convenience brought by BLIK, which lets consumers make online and in-store purchases, send money instantly between bank accounts, and even withdraw cash from ATMs, all without needing a payment card.
This payment network has been around for ten years now. The service was launched by Polski Standard Płatności, an alliance of six Polish banks. Over a decade, it gained considerable market prominence. In 2024, BLIK reported serving nearly 17 million users, while having processed 2.4 billion transactions worth 350 billion Polish złoty (almost $93 billion).
BLIK makes it extremely easy to pay for products and services or send money to friends. When one wants to make a transaction, they get a unique 6-digit code from the fintech firm’s mobile banking app. That code is valid for 2 minutes and can be entered online, on an ATM screen, or at a contactless payment terminal. To complete the payment, a user just needs to confirm the vendor and the amount in the app. If a BLIK customer links their phone number to a bank account, P2P transfers to their phone contacts are also instant and free, even if their friends or relatives use different banks.
Pay by Bank (UK and Australia)
One of the biggest banks in Australia, National Australia Bank (NAB), is actively promoting A2A payments, with the ‘Pay by Bank’ (PayTo) option for local merchants. There are already over 7 million consumer accounts enabled to receive PayTo agreements through the bank’s mobile and internet banking services. The integration with Amazon’s Australian platform in 2025 is expected to fuel the adoption even more.
In the UK, total A2A transaction volume was over $102 billion last year. Experts anticipate that number to triple in the next five years. Pay by Bank is one of the top initiatives driving the growth of A2A payments in the country. There are several local providers of the service in the UK. These include Banked, Finexer, Token.io, TrueLayer, and GoCardless. Some of these companies are facilitating Pay by Bank integration in business payment flow with open banking APIs, while others are connecting merchants and consumers. Banked is also partnering with foreign institutions like NAB and FIS to promote the technology abroad. Besides, leading UK financial institutions, like HSBC are also supporting Pay by Bank functionality, which significantly expands its user base.
When shopping online in respective countries, users can choose “Pay by Bank” as the payment method. Then, they need to select their bank from the drop-down list, which redirects customers to their mobile banking app or online banking portal to proceed with the payment. The user logs in securely (leveraging biometrics, PIN, or password) and needs to either confirm or decline the payment details already filled out by the system. Simplicity and speed are key aspects of this payment method that lure more and more people each year.
iDEAL (Netherlands)
iDEAL completely transformed Dutch online payments, taking the local fintech industry by storm twenty years ago. Today, hundreds of thousands of businesses across multiple industries in the Netherlands accept this payment method, while it processes more than 1.2 billion transactions each year. In 2024, that number considerably surged to 1.47 billion payments. Besides, the total iDEAL spending last year was only 4% below the total national debit card spending (€141 billion vs €147 billion, respectively).
This payment solution facilitates real-time bank transfers directly between accounts. When choosing iDEAL at checkout, the user selects their bank and is redirected to their familiar online banking environment to authenticate the pre-filled payment securely. iDEAL transactions are leveraging the bank’s own authentication methods, and do not require credit card information, making it widely trusted and cost-effective.
Swish (Sweden)
Swish started its journey in 2012 as a collaboration among six major Swedish banks. In 2023, Swish achieved a milestone in payment volume processed over the year. This indicator surpassed a one billion threshold and keeps growing. The payment solution is attracting customers with its convenience and versatility. It is utilised for P2P payments, e-commerce, and business transactions. Besides, last year, Swish added self-scanning, recurring payments and payment cards functionalities to its already popular app.
Self-scanning greatly promotes A2A payments in offline environments, as users can scan items at select stores and pay directly within the app, eliminating the need to queue at checkout. Meanwhile, recurring payments enable users to authorise automatic transactions for regular services like subscriptions, donations, and memberships.
While Swish’s main focus is A2A, the company also allows users to add payment cards to its app, facilitating contactless tap-to-pay transactions in stores both in Sweden and abroad. Having all favourite payment methods available in one place surely brings users greater flexibility and convenience. It also offers utter security, as users authenticate each transaction through the BankID app, Sweden’s electronic identification system.
Bizum (Spain)
This peer-to-peer embedded payment service lets users transfer money instantly to anyone with a Spanish or Andorran bank account using their phone number. Besides, Bizum is popular in e-commerce settings, as well as for recurring payments, subscriptions and donations. It is free for consumers to use and can be activated in the apps of any of its partner banks, which include leading local institutions such as Banco Santander, BBVA or CaixaBank. Bizum is also expanding internationally, with Deutsche Bank recently becoming the first non-Spanish bank to offer this payment solution.
The number of transactions processed by Bizum in Spain surged more than threefold from 2020 to 2022, positioning it as one of the fastest-growing A2A payment methods in Europe.
Wero (EU)
Wero is the European Payments Initiative’s (EPI) digital wallet. It debuted in Germany, in July 2024, was rolled out to France in September the same year, and launched in Belgium last November. The wallet was embedded by major financial institutions in these countries, including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, Sparkassen, Belfius, ING, KBC, and BNP Paribas Fortis.
As of late 2024, Wero had enrolled 14 million users and processed 8 million transactions, primarily focusing on person-to-person (P2P) transfers using phone numbers, email addresses, or QR codes. More than one-third (37%) of European payment executives surveyed by Capgemini anticipate it will significantly decrease card transaction growth across Europe by 2027.
Vipps MobilePay (Norway, Denmark, Finland)
Vipps and MobilePay, the two leading mobile payment platforms in Norway, Denmark, and Finland, have recently unified under the Vipps MobilePay brand to simplify and unify mobile payments across the Nordic region, and are now boasting a combined user base of more than 12 million. This is the vast majority of the population in the given Nordic countries, which host between 5.4 – 5.8 million inhabitants each.
They are processing 75 million transactions monthly, showcasing how cost-effective and convenient A2A payments are. Vipps MobilePay domestic transactions are free, while cross-border transfers incur a competitive 4% fee.
The service facilitates cross-border peer-to-peer (P2P) payments between the three Nordic countries, as well as payments to over 325,000 merchants and organisations across the supported locations. The solution is popular for online and in-store purchases, subscriptions, and donations.
Visa and Mastercard Forays Into A2A Segment in Europe
This year, the fintech community in the UK is expecting the new A2A product from Visa, one of the major intermediary card networks which is likely to suffer from the growth of direct payments between accounts. The payment provider has continuously expressed its interest in the A2A sector. Some of the first indicators of this enthusiasm were revealed in 2023, when Visa made a strategic investment in a cloud-native platform Form3 that focuses on reducing fraud in real-time account-to-account payments.
Visa A2A is based on an open system available for all eligible banks and other industry partners to join. It introduces security standards, robust permission rules, and a dispute management service to help protect consumers and further modernise open banking-based payments.
The company is set to debut its A2A payment service in the UK to potentially expand across Europe. The exact date is unknown, but initial plans were for the first half of the year. According to Visa’s website, the use cases for its new technology will start with bill payments, soon to be followed by subscriptions. The infrastructure for the new service will include “revenue-generating APIs”. It is being designed in partnership with leading UK fintechs.
Mastercard is also advertising its Move suite of services as the one facilitating cross-border A2A payments. However, since the card network uses its existing payment rails, many observers classify it as a hybrid or “pseudo” A2A rather than a pure bank-to-bank transfer. Move leverages Mastercard’s own clearing and settlement engine instead of settling the transaction directly over real-time bank networks such as SEPA Instant or FedNow, which hardly makes it a pure open-banking transfer.
Pix (Brazil)
While Europe is actively embracing A2A payments today, many developing economies have already achieved really astonishing results in this sphere. One of them is Brazil, which is home to Pix – the instant payment system developed by the country’s Central Bank.
Pix has transformed Brazil’s payments landscape by overtaking both cash and card transactions in just a few years. It’s hard to believe now that the system has been around for less than five years. In 2023, Brazilians made 42 billion Pix transactions, moving over 17 trillion reais (about $3.4 trillion) between accounts, a 72% increase over 2022, compared with 17.8 billion credit-card and 16.3 billion debit-card transactions that transferred just BRL 3.4 trillion (USD 677 billion). In 2024, Pix statistics were even more impressive – 63.4 billions of transactions worth BRL 26.4 trillion ($4.6T).
Retailers have benefited from dramatically lower fees, using this A2A payment system. Just compare 0.22% per Pix payment with up to 2.2% on credit cards. On top of that, Pix offers instant settlement that improves cash flow and reduces working-capital drag. Besides, all banks and large payment institutions in the country have mandatorily joined the payment scheme, which enabled its availability for over 90% of banked adults. Its universal nature is underscored by versatility, with PayCodes and QR-based flows that work across apps, ATMs, and point-of-sale. A recurring payment feature in plans for the network is expected to boost the system even more, along with scheduled payments, auto billing and contactless NFC payments. Pix is also gradually developing international connectivity with other A2A systems to facilitate cross-border payments.
UPI (India)
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has established itself as the backbone of digital transactions in the country’s account-to-account (A2A) payment landscape. Launched in 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI accounted for over 80% of India’s retail digital payments in FY 2023 – 2024, with projections stating it could contribute up to 91% by FY 2028 – 2029.
UPI offers free transactions for users and minimal costs for merchants, promoting widespread adoption. Just as Brazil’s Pix, UPI has a universal acceptance nationwide, boosted by seamless integration with various banking and fintech platforms. The A2A payment scheme is growing popular not only in busy urban centres eager for digital payments, but also in rural and semi-urban India, where about 38% of citizens are choosing UPI as their primary transaction mode.
In 2024, UPI processed approximately 172.2 billion transactions, a 46% increase from 117.7 billion in 2023. Their value in 2024 was $2.96 trillion (₹246.82 lakh crore), up from $2.19 trillion (₹182.84 lakh crore) the year before. December 2024 brought the payment system a new record high of 16.73 billion transactions, with a total value of $279 billion.
Why Are A2A Payments Surging?
The surge in A2A payments seems inevitable, as they present a much more affordable alternative to traditional card transactions. The difference between 0.2% to 0.5% fees typically charged for A2A transfers and 1-3% for card payments is huge. The contrast can be even more striking in case with cross-border payments, which are typically more expensive to process. It is especially significant in times of rising living costs, inflation levels, and tariff rates that hike product and service prices further.
Their speed is also a tangible benefit. Many A2A transactions are processed in real-time and are nearly instantaneous, while card payments can take 1–3 days to clear. Faster clearance is good for businesses aiming to boost their liquidity. Truth be told, which business doesn’t?
Besides, A2A payments are a game-changer for data and payment security. They are made directly from a bank account, often authenticated with biometrics or app-based verification, skipping the need to enter card information. It is greatly reducing the risk of card fraud and chargebacks.
Finally, unlike cards, A2A payments are not bound by expiration dates or credit limits, making them a perfect choice for recurring payments and large transactions.
Obstacles to A2A Adoption
Despite the growing adoption, A2A payments face several hurdles on their way to being as widespread as bank cards.
- Fragmented Infrastructure
Many countries operate their own real-time or instant-payment rails. Merchants and fintechs must integrate multiple networks if they serve customers across borders, while few A2A systems are interoperable at international scale. - Variable Open-Banking Maturity
A2A relies on robust API solutions operating under open-banking regulations. Where regulatory frameworks are still evolving or banks lag in API quality, service reliability and reach suffer, slowing down merchant and consumer participation in such schemes. - Limited Merchant Awareness and Support
Merchants accustomed to card payments may be unaware of A2A benefits or concerned about the upfront integration effort. Until payment-platform providers bundle A2A into one-click checkouts as seamlessly as cards, many online and offline retailers hesitate to offer it. While nearly 95% of small businesses in the U.S. accept card payments, less than 60% accept digital wallets and other payment alternatives. - Consumer Behaviour and Trust
Card payments are backed by decades of fraud-protection policies, chargebacks, and rewards. Consumers may mistrust direct-bank transfers or worry about losing “built-in” card safeguards. Many bank clients remain loyal to cards due to reward programs and other perks marketed by card networks. - Dispute and Refund Complexity
True A2A transfers settle irrevocably and immediately on real-time rails. While that’s great in speed terms, it leaves less room for automatic chargebacks or easy refunds and causes heavier reliance on bilateral resolution processes, which might be cumbersome. - Bank Participation and Reach
Not all banks participate equally in every A2A scheme. Where participation is mandatory, we see higher adoption levels. In other cases, customers of smaller or regional banks may be excluded, limiting the universal appeal that cards enjoy.
The State of A2A in 2025
In 2025, A2A payments are dominating the global payment scene, particularly in Europe, where instant, low-cost transfers are reshaping how people and businesses move money. Driven by real-time payment rails and open banking, A2A is rapidly taking market share from traditional card payments.
Nearly one in four Europeans now use A2A for online transactions, with that number expected to hit three in four by 2029. Local solutions like BLIK in Poland, iDEAL in the Netherlands, Swish in Sweden, and Bizum in Spain are processing millions of transactions monthly, rivaling card usage.
Global adoption is also surging, with 186 billion A2A transactions projected by 2029, up from 60 billion in 2024, a staggering 209% growth. Major financial players are noticing: Visa is launching its A2A service in the UK, and Mastercard is expanding its Move platform, although its hybrid approach is sometimes criticised as “pseudo A2A”.
Despite some challenges, like fragmented infrastructure, varying open banking maturity, and limited merchant awareness, A2A payments are proving faster, cheaper, and more secure, signaling a shift that’s only gaining momentum.
