Italian Payment App Jiffy Changes its Target

With all the ruckus over peer to peer (P2P) payments systems these days, and seeing how many person to business (P2B) payment systems are looking to get in on that market, it’s a pretty big surprise to see progress flow in the other direction. That’s just what’s going on with Jiffy, though, and it’s not only making the unexpected move, it’s also making it very big.

The reports note that Jiffy is setting its sights on retailers, and has already made an appearance at fully 150 retail stores across three cities: Turin, Rome and Milan. With over 4.2 million users to its credit, and over 120 banks working with Jiffy, the app was about as simple as P2P could get. All users needed was a mobile phone number, and they could send money in real-time to just about anybody.

Though it doesn’t look like Jiffy’s ditching the P2P market, it’s certainly stepping up its interest in the P2B market. With an equally simple premise—a QR code to scan generated by merchants at the point of sale sets up the transaction, and a scan completes it—Jiffy might well have the ease of use market well in hand.

Users can then view the details of the payment following the scan, and in one final burst of security, authorizes payment by PIN or by fingerprint scan, adding a whole new level of biometrically-powered security to the mix. Since Jiffy works on Sepa credit transfers, reports note, that makes it potentially available to as many as 400 million Europeans, and likely more before it launches.

With a market like that on hand—coupled with the market it already has—Jiffy could wind up being the biggest things in mobile payments that Europe has ever seen. Given how deep mobile payments has become entrenched in the UK, it’s a safe bet that Jiffy will find a lot of interested users waiting for a chance to add to mobile payment capability.

Only time will tell how well this works, but there’s almost always something to be said for diversification. Opening up a second front while the first is doing well can be a great way to double your income…or at least, hike it up a bit.