Bank clients will be able to search by cell phone number (of the recipient) when they want to make a transfer, thanks to a new platform created by the Bank of Portugal – whose name will not be revealed until the coming weeks – and which banks will have to make available this summer. The service will mean that people will begin to use their IBAN less to make transfers through Applications of banks or Banking Home.

The search by mobile phone number is one of the new features that will appear in the coming weeks in payment services in Portugal. In practice, what will happen is that, when making a transfer, instead of having to enter the 21 digits of an IBAN (which is not very convenient and can lead to errors), you will be able look up a contact’s cell phone number and make the transfer using this “shortcut”. It is about using the mobile phone number as an alternative to using the IBAN, saving work and avoiding possible errors in the use of the IBAN.

Many people are already used to similar solutions that exist on the market; the best known is MBWay – but this is a service provided by a private company (SIBS, owner of Multibanco) and that has some usage limitsIn addition to MBWay being a Service based on bank cards and not on accounts. (as happens in traditional transfers).

Since June 24 Banks will now begin to offer this service to clients, with a period of progressive adoption planned that will extend throughout next summer. The deadline given by the Bank of Portugal for banks to implement the service is mid-September.

The bank will ask you if you authorize associating your cell phone number

Each person will have to authorize their cell phone number to be associated with a bank account where they can receive money from other people. This means that when each bank implements this solution, A message will appear on the bank’s website. (or in application) in which the customer is asked if they authorize this account to be associated with a specific mobile phone number.

Several people can associate the same account with several mobile phone numbers (which is useful, for example, in joint accounts between couples). However, each mobile phone number can only be associated with one account, which means that if you accept the association of an account with a mobile phone number and then accept the association of the same number in another account, the The last association will replace the first..

The service will only be available for national accounts (that have an IBAN from PT50) but it is possible to associate foreign mobile numbers.

To avoid the abusive use of this mechanism known technically as “proxy search“, The Bank of Portugal and the banks themselves will follow cases where someone may be investigating too much by mobile phone number (something that could be used in bad faith) and, if there is evidence of abusive use, entities will take measures to stop this practice.

Another feature that will come into effect soon, the May 20th (without adaptation period), is the recipient confirmation on all channels including Applications Is Banking Home. In practice, as is already the case with ATMs, every time you enter the IBAN (or, later, the mobile phone number) of the person to whom you want to transfer money, The name of the account holder will be displayed on the screen.

This change had already been announced by the Bank of Portugal about a year ago, but only now has the deadline for banks to apply it been revealed, with the aim of preventing people from making transfers to an incorrect IBAN.