Payment processor SIA has launched a peer-to-peer payments service that lets users send and receive money in real-time with their smartphone. Based on the Sepa Credit Transfer scheme, Jiffy is available to all banks operating in the Single Euro Payments Area, opening it up to a potential 400 million consumers.

“First of all, the user needs to be the holder of a current account at a bank subscribing to the service. They need to register on the bank’s home banking portal, providing their cell phone number that will be used to send and receive money. The system links the IBAN code of the account to the phone number,” SIA explains.

“Following this, the user downloads the Jiffy app and enters the system access credentials and the service works exactly like WhatsApp or other similar services; after opening the personal contacts list on the smartphone — users already enabled for the service are marked with a specific icon — the user selects the beneficiary, enters the amount, perhaps also a text message, and clicks to complete the send operation.”

The Jiffy app is available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices.