Consumers will be able to make peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payments across Europe using only the payee’s mobile phone number which will act as proxy for their international bank account number (IBAN) by the end of 2017, the European Central Bank (ECB) has revealed.

The Eurosystem, made up of the ECB and the national central banks of states whose currency is the euro, “expects the launch of a standardised look-up service that allows (person-to-person) mobile payments using the mobile phone number of the payee as a proxy for the IBAN,” Yves Mersch, member of the executive board of the ECB, said during a keynote speech at the French Payments Committee conference.

“This service should be launched by the end of 2017 and should not be restricted to national IBANs.”

At the same time, payment service providers are being encouraged by the Eurosystem to “make instant payment solutions in euro available to end users at a pan-European level from November 2017”.