A new partnership between Italian bank UBI Banca and SIA will enable shoppers at the ‘Iper La grande i’ hypermarket to pay for their items using a mobile app and QR code.

The service will initially be trialled at four hypermarkets before rolling out to another 23 Iper La Grande i locations. The initiative aims to support the development of more innovative payment options in the country, as digital payment systems in Italy recorded 60 per cent growth in 2016 – totalling €6.7 billion.

Jiffy associates a mobile number to an IBAN, enabling money to be transferred in real time between individuals and payments to be made to merchants. Customers scan the QR code generated by the cashdesk via their smartphone, and simply tap the screen to complete the payment. The service is also available at self-service terminals.

UBI Banca and SIA have worked together since 2014, when the bank launched Jiffy to enable customers to send and receive P2P payments via smartphone.

“Today we have taken another important step forward in the digitisation of cash in Italy”, said Natascia Noveri, head of marketing at UBI Banca. “After being the first to introduce money transfers via smartphone thanks to our partnership with SIA, now we are also taking the peer-to-peer Jiffy system into the mass retailing sector as a result of the innovative vision we share with Iper.”

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