The extension of the IRIS direct payment system to all businesses is proceeding, so that legal entities will also be obliged to accept payments from citizens through this system. In this direction, the draft bill of the Ministry of Economy and Finance for the strengthening of the capital market, which will be posted for public consultation in the next period, will include a provision regulating this extension.

The above and the next steps of the further development of the IRIS direct payment system in our country were discussed at the meeting held under the Minister of National Economy and Finance Costis Hatzidakis, the Secretary General of the Financial Sector and Private Debt Management Theoni Alambasi, and with the participation of the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Greece and President of DIAS A. E. Christina Papakonstantinou and the Managing Director of DIAS S.A. Mrs. Stavroula Kabouridou.

It is reminded that today all citizens can activate the IRIS product in their bank's mobile banking application (mobile banking) and carry out direct money transfers with other citizens up to 500 euros per day without bank commissions. In addition, with a recent legislative initiative of the government, freelancers and self-employed persons are now obliged to accept direct payments from their customers and, in this way, pay significantly lower commissions compared to those they would pay if the transaction was carried out through the use of POS.

The IRIS direct payment system is now part of the daily lives of 3.5 million citizens and 560,000 registered professionals, with a very significant penetration of electronic transactions, as reflected by the official data of DIAS S.A. Specifically:

• Greece has the 2nd highest increase by 2022 in the availability of direct payments across the European Union, after the Netherlands, according to the European Central Bank's SPACE Report.
• In 2024, a 137% increase in IRIS transactions (57.3 million) was recorded, with a total value of €6.1 billion (+110% annual growth).
• 65% of users belong to the 18-35 age group.
• Professionals registered (560,000) on the IRIS P2B service increased by 259% compared to 2023. At the same time, the total value of transactions received increased tenfold.
• The number of registered traders/shops in the IRIS eCommerce service reached 6.9 thousand in 2024, an increase of 46 times compared to 2020.

Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis said: "The IRIS direct payment system is now part of the everyday life of 3.5 million citizens and 560,000 professionals with constantly increasing trends. We have every reason to strengthen it and encourage citizens and professionals to use it because of the zero commissions for citizen-to-citizen transactions and the significantly low commissions for payments accepted by professionals. At the same time, Greece can and is catching up with other European countries, as reflected in the European Central Bank Report, which ranks our country 2nd within the EU in terms of availability of direct payments. We are therefore moving on to the next step, which is to extend the system to all businesses within 2025.". 

Finally, it is recalled that within the first half of this year, the amount of direct transactions per day, which currently stands at 500 euros, is to be doubled to 1,000 euros per day (500 euros to citizens and 500 euros for transactions with professionals).