Standards/mb-way-qr
MB WAY QR
Overview
MB WAY is Portugal's dominant mobile payment app, operated by SIBS (the central Portuguese payment infrastructure company that also runs Multibanco since 1985) [1, pt-cro]. It evolved from TeleMultibanco (1996) → MB Phone (2008) → MB WAY (rebranded 2014), with the modern feature-rich MB WAY launching in 2015 with QR codes, NFC, in-store payments, MB NET virtual cards, and cardless ATM withdrawal [2, pt-cro]. By 2024 MB WAY has ~6 million users (≈ 60 % of Portuguese adult population) and 95 % bank coverage (28 banks) PT, with a 45 % market share of Portuguese e-commerce transactions [2].
The MB WAY QR feature — branded QR Code Express for static-merchant QR — enables one printed QR sticker to be scanned and paid multiple times via MB WAY [3, pt-cro]. SIBS is a EuroPA founding member (with Bizum Spain and Bancomat Italy) for cross-border instant mobile payments since March 2025 PT.
History
The SIBS / Multibanco foundation (1985) [pt-cro, 4]: SIBS launched Multibanco on 2 September 1985 as Portugal's unified national ATM and payment network. Over the following four decades Multibanco grew to 13,000+ ATM terminals across Portugal, 27 participating banks, 60+ different services including bill payments, top-ups, ticketing, and the distinctive Multibanco Reference payment-code system (Entity + Reference + Amount).
| Year | Brand | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | TeleMultibanco | Phone-banking precursor; balance queries, basic transactions via voice |
| 2008 | MB Phone | Mobile-banking rebrand; smartphone-era features |
| 2014 | MB WAY | Modern rebrand under MB (Multibanco) Way branding |
| 2015 | MB WAY (relaunch) | Full feature set: QR Code Express, NFC payments, MB NET virtual cards, cardless ATM, in-store / online checkout |
| 2018 | SIBS Instant Payments | National SCT Inst rail launched, providing the instant-settlement foundation |
| 2020 | TIPS connection | SIBS connects to TIPS for pan-European instant payments |
| 2024 | SPIN | Phone-number / tax-ID-based instant transfers added (separate product, same rail) |
| December 2023 | EuroPA founded | SIBS joins Bizum (ES) and Bancomat (IT) as founding member |
| March 2025 | EuroPA live cross-border | First cross-border transactions; ~50+ million connected users |
| June 2025 | EuroPA-EPI partnership announced | Feasibility study for 15-country pan-European integration |
By 2024, MB WAY had become Portugal's universal mobile payment infrastructure, with SIBS continuously layering new features (QR Code Express expansion, cardless ATM, contactless NFC, EuroPA cross-border) onto the same MB WAY app and brand.
Technical specification
MB WAY operates on SIBS Instant Payments (SCT Inst connected to TIPS) and the underlying Multibanco network infrastructure [pt-cro, 3]:
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Underlying rail | SIBS Instant Payments → TIPS (pan-European SCT Inst) |
| Settlement | Real-time, 24/7/365 |
| Cost | Free for P2P; merchant fees apply |
| Bank coverage | 28 banks (~95 % of Portuguese accounts) |
| App | Standalone MB WAY app (operated by SIBS) + integration in major bank apps |
Interaction modes [pt-cro, 3, 2]:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| P2P (phone number) | Send by recipient's mobile number; instant settlement |
| MB NET virtual card | Generate one-time-use virtual card numbers for online payment safety |
| QR Code Express (static) | Single printable QR per merchant — can be scanned and paid multiple times; supports physical goods, digital goods, services [3] |
| Dynamic QR | POS-terminal-generated per transaction with amount embedded |
| NFC contactless | Android and iPhone NFC tap-to-pay at NFC POS terminals |
| Cardless ATM | Customer scans QR on ATM screen with MB WAY app, authenticates with PIN/TouchID/FaceID, ATM unlocks for use PT |
| Phone-number-at-POS | Tell cashier your phone number, confirm payment in app |
| Multibanco reference | Pay any Multibanco-reference invoice via MB WAY app (entity + reference + amount) |
| Online checkout | E-commerce integration via SIBS Gateway |
QR Code Express specifics [3]:
- Static — single QR per merchant; consumer enters amount; QR reusable indefinitely.
- Use cases — physical goods, digital goods, services, including informal vendors and farm stalls.
- Available on traditional media and physical devices — printed sticker, screen, terminal display.
- Instant payment confirmation to both consumer and merchant.
Multibanco Reference (legacy + parallel) PT: A distinct payment-code system that predates QR and remains widely used:
- Entity number — 5 digits identifying the biller / merchant
- Reference number — variable-length numeric, per-invoice
- Amount — payment value
- Generated server-side with optional expiry
- Validated via check-digit
- Paid via ATM, home banking, or MB WAY app
Multibanco Reference is structurally parallel to QR Code Express but predates QR codes by ~25 years — and continues to coexist with QR because of universal Portuguese consumer familiarity and the entrenched billing-software ecosystem.
Use cases
MB WAY is Portugal's universal mobile payment infrastructure [pt-cro, 2]:
- P2P transfers — instant by phone number; the launch use case and still substantial.
- E-commerce checkout — 45 % market share of Portuguese e-commerce transactions [2]; consumer's most preferred online payment method.
- In-store retail POS — QR Code Express + NFC at merchants of all sizes.
- Farm stalls and informal vendors — 1,900+ Portuguese farm stands accept MB WAY PT — the printable-QR-sticker advantage works at otherwise-untrackable transaction points.
- Cardless ATM withdrawal — QR-based ATM access without a physical card; consumer authenticates via mobile app biometrics.
- Bill payments via Multibanco Reference — utilities, telecom, government fees, school fees.
- Online subscriptions and recurring charges — MB NET virtual cards for safer online card-not-present transactions.
- Cross-border via EuroPA (since March 2025) — Portuguese consumers paying Spanish (Bizum) or Italian (Bancomat) merchants and vice versa.
- Tourist payment acceptance — Portuguese merchants accepting EuroPA-routed cross-border tourists.
- ~6 million users (~60 % of Portuguese adult population)
- 3.5 million users making 9 million purchases per month (alternative recent count [2])
- 28 banks (~95 % bank coverage)
- 45 % e-commerce market share
- 99.8 % of retail payments in Portugal are electronic (broader context, MB WAY is a major contributor)
Implementations
MB WAY's integration model is SIBS-mediated [pt-cro, 5]:
Bank-app integrations (canonical production consumption) PT:
| App | Bank |
|---|---|
| CGD Caixadirecta | Caixa Geral de Depósitos (state-owned, market leader) |
| Millennium | Banco Comercial Português (BCP) |
| Santander PT | Banco Santander Totta |
| NB smart | Novo Banco |
| BPI App | Banco BPI |
| MB WAY App (standalone) | SIBS |
Plus 22+ additional Portuguese bank apps — universal Portuguese banking-system coverage.
Merchant / e-commerce gateways:
- SIBS Gateway — official MB WAY merchant integration platform; REST APIs for QR Code Express, dynamic QR, references, recurring payments [3, 5].
- Major international PSPs (Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay, etc.) offer MB WAY as a Portuguese-market payment method.
Open-source library ecosystem is essentially absent — SIBS gates the production protocol; integration is via SIBS Gateway APIs or bank-app SDKs.
Comparison
vs. bizum (Spain) — Closest peer; EuroPA founding partners since March 2025. Both founded by national banking-system consortia, both built on SCT Inst, both achieved national mobile payment dominance. MB WAY predates Bizum by ~2 years (2014/2015 vs 2016) but Bizum reached scale faster (Spanish banking-system concentration helped). EuroPA cross-border interop now bridges them [bizum-ref, pt-cro, es-cro].
vs. blik (Poland), swish-qr (Sweden), twint (Switzerland) — All bank-consortium-founded national mobile payment systems in their respective home markets. MB WAY's distinctive feature is closer integration with a pre-existing nationwide ATM/POS network (Multibanco) than its peers; Multibanco gave MB WAY universal Portuguese acceptance from launch in a way that other peers had to build organically [blik-ref, swish-ref, twint-ref].
vs. epc-qr (pan-European invoice QR) — Complementary; EPC QR is for printed invoice payment-initiation, MB WAY's QR Code Express is for mobile-app-mediated merchant payment. The Multibanco Reference system (Entity + Reference + Amount) historically filled the role EPC QR fills in other eurozone countries; Portugal continues both [epc-ref, pt-cro].
vs. swiss-qr-bill (Switzerland) — Both are national invoice / billing payment systems (Switzerland's QR-bill via printed QR; Portugal's via Multibanco Reference + MB WAY). Different formats, similar role in each country's billing-payment workflow [swiss-qr-bill-ref].
Fun facts
MB WAY's lineage stretches back to 1996 [2] — TeleMultibanco was a phone-banking service that pre-dated smartphones. The rebrand to MB Phone (2008) coincided with smartphone adoption; the rebrand to MB WAY (2014) coincided with the app-economy maturation; the relaunch with full features (2015) made it a modern mobile-payment platform. Few national mobile-payment products have a 30-year continuous lineage like this — most are 2010s-era greenfield builds.
Portugal's payment ecosystem is uniquely centralised under one operator PT. SIBS operates all of Multibanco, MB WAY, SIBS Instant Payments, the national clearing rail SICOI, and most acquirer-side merchant gateways. This is a deliberate Portuguese choice — pooling national payment infrastructure in a single industry-owned company rather than fragmenting across competitors. The result is that MB WAY launched with universal-bank participation from day one (rare for national mobile payment systems).
1,900+ Portuguese farm stands accept MB WAY PT — the same farm-stand-honesty-box-pattern observed for TWINT in Switzerland. Printable QR stickers enable transaction capture at otherwise-untrackable informal commerce points; this is a structural advantage of mobile-payment-via-QR over card-network-via-POS-terminal in rural / informal-vendor contexts.
EuroPA — Bizum (Spain) + MB WAY (Portugal) + Bancomat (Italy) — was the first cross-border-instant-mobile-payment-product that actually launched in production (March 2025) at consumer-relevant scale PT. Pan-European mobile payment interoperability has been talked about for years (EBA's various initiatives, EPI, Wero); EuroPA is the southern-European subset that delivered first. The subsequent expansion to Andorra, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, Poland, Sweden brings cumulative coverage to ~382 million people across 15 countries.
The Multibanco Reference system (Entity + Reference + Amount) PT is one of the most-distinctively-Portuguese payment-system features. A Portuguese consumer recognises an invoice's Entity number (e.g., 21800 = a specific utility) and pays by typing the reference number into their ATM or banking app — no QR scan, no card, no transfer setup. Decades of consumer familiarity make this still the dominant invoice-payment mode in Portugal even as MB WAY's QR Code Express grows.
Status
Active, dominant, internationalising via EuroPA [pt-cro, 2]:
- ~6 million MB WAY users (~60 % of Portuguese adult population)
- 28 banks (~95 % coverage)
- 45 % e-commerce market share
- 99.8 % of retail payments electronic (broader; MB WAY is a major contributor)
- EuroPA cross-border live since March 2025 (with Spain and Italy; expanding to Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Andorra)
- EuroPA-EPI partnership in feasibility study (Dec 2025) — could enable pan-European sovereign mobile payment solution
Strategic context PT:
- EU 2024/886 Instant Payments Regulation (mandatory Jan/Oct 2025) — boosts SCT Inst foundation underneath MB WAY.
- SPIN (phone-number/tax-ID instant transfer) launched 2024 alongside MB WAY — additional layer on the same rail.
- Confirmation of Payee required service deployed; 77 % fraud reduction reported; 83.2 million payee verifications in 2024 PT.
- Digital euro participation — SIBS active in ECB digital euro preparation, testing tokenisation and DLT.
No deprecation planned. MB WAY is core Portuguese national payment infrastructure; SIBS continues to layer new features rather than rearchitect.
Sources
- MB WAY — SIBS (official)
- MB WAY payment method — PPRO
- QR Code Express — SIBS Gateway documentation
- Multibanco — Wikipedia
- Payments App and SDK — SIBS
- 10 years of MB WAY — SIBS corporate
- History of MB WAY — Portugal.com
- Report on Payment Systems 2024 — Banco de Portugal
- EuroPA cross-border launch — Fintech Futures
- Portugal payment rails — Transfi
- PT-portugal.md
Deployments
Found in the following country reports (grep across reports/countries/):
- PT — PT-portugal.md