Open Banking in Greece: A 2026 Guide

In the corridors of Brussels, open banking is often discussed as a consumer-led revolution driven by the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2). However, in Greece, the story is quite different. While the country technically complied with EU frameworks as early as 2018, the real "turning point" was not a shift in consumer sentiment but a decisive top-down intervention by the state.

By 2026, Greece has gone from being one of Europe's slowest adopters of open banking to one of its most interesting success stories – largely thanks to a government crackdown on tax evasion and the explosive growth of a payment system called IRIS.

What Is Open Banking?

Open banking is a regulated framework that allows individuals and businesses to manage their finances, access financial services, and make direct payments without relying on traditional card networks. It works by enabling banks to share financial data and initiate payments through secure Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) – standardised digital connections available to licensed third-party providers under the EU's PSD2 directive.

This infrastructure supports two core services:

• Account Information Services (AIS) give authorised providers real-time access to a user's account balances and transaction history. This data powers tools such as budgeting applications, automated credit assessments, KYC verification and personalised financial insights – all without requiring the user to submit manual documentation.
• Payment Initiation Services (PIS) allow payments to be made directly from one bank account to another, bypassing card networks entirely. This reduces transaction costs, shortens settlement times and simplifies the payment experience for both consumers and merchants.

For businesses and fintech companies, open banking also enables deeper financial analysis – with user consent – to support more accurate credit decisions, personalised product offerings and streamlined checkout experiences. The overall result is a more efficient, transparent and inclusive financial system.

What’s Unique About Open Banking Adoption in Greece

In theory, Greece started embracing open banking in 2018 when it formally integrated the EU’s PSD2 directive into national law. In reality, adoption remained slow until the Greek government utilised the framework as a weapon against tax evasion.

This aggressive 'push' is deeply rooted in Greece’s unique historical context: following the 2015 financial crisis, capital controls were introduced. They limited cash withdrawals and forced a surge in digital card usage. The state then saw that electronic payments were not just a convenience, but a critical tool for economic formalisation and eradication of the shadow economy. Led by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), the state mandated that digital payments be linked directly to the "myDATA" tax platform.

A central part of this shift is IRIS, Greece’s domestic instant payment scheme. Operated by DIAS, the country’s interbank payment systems provider, IRIS enables instant account-to-account payments using bank infrastructure rather than card networks. For consumers and merchants, it serves as the most visible and practical application of open banking in Greece.

This culminated in a historic domestic payments mandate: as of November 1, 2025, IRIS acceptance became mandatory for all commercial entities − both physical and online. This made Greece the first country in Europe to require near-universal acceptance of instant, bank-to-bank payments across every point of sale.

Key Insight: While markets like the UK were driven by consumer demand for Personal Finance Management (PFM) apps, Greece is driven by the state’s desire for fiscal visibility  and lower-cost payment rails.

The Two Pillars of Greek Open Banking

The ecosystem is built on two functional pillars defined by PSD2, but their implementation in Greece has distinct local flavors:

1. Payment Initiation Services (PIS) & The IRIS Dominance

PIS allows users to pay directly from their bank accounts, bypassing card networks like Visa or Mastercard. In Greece, this is synonymous with IRIS. Built on SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) rails and operated by DIAS, IRIS is the local, consumer-facing brand for instant payments in Greece.

The service is available through local banks’ apps that now allow users to send peer-to-peer transfers using just a mobile number or email, pay in store by scanning a QR code or make online purchases by being redirected to their bank to approve the payment.

• Adoption: By late 2025, nearly 7 in 10 instant payments in Greece are processed via IRIS.
• Growth: 2024 saw a 150% increase in IRIS transaction volume, totaling €3.7 billion.
• User Experience: The process is now a streamlined "app-to-app" switch or a QR code scan at a terminal, utilising biometrics for instant approval. Supermarkets, restaurants and pharmacies have emerged as the leading sectors for IRIS Commerce.

2. Account Information Services (AIS)

In Greece, AIS is established at the infrastructure level, but it is less commercially visible than payment initiation. Its clearest use today is in account aggregation: major banks such as Eurobank, Alpha Bank, NBG and Piraeus let customers view accounts and cards held at other banks from within their own digital banking environments, and some integrations now extend to international fintech players like Revolut and N26. 

Rather than driving a mass-market consumer shift, AIS in Greece appears to be developing more gradually as a banking utility for financial visibility, multi-bank management and some business cases, particularly in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and business software industry.

The Provider Landscape in 2026

The Greek open banking market is currently served by three categories of providers: 

• Greek banks – offering IRIS / Pay by Bank functionality and account data services;
• Large payment service providers – including Viva.com, Worldline, epay (Piraeus), Stripe, and Adyen – which offer IRIS integration for merchants;
• Pan-European open banking platforms – providing Pay by Bank and financial data services across multiple markets, with Greece included (bank coverage varies by provider).

Regulatory Resilience and Future Outlook

The landscape is being further fortified by the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which has been in full force since early 2025, ensuring that the infrastructure behind these data flows can withstand cyber threats.

Looking ahead, the alignment with the PSD3/PSR reforms and the European Digital Identity Wallet framework suggests that the "top-down" push is only the beginning. As digital onboarding becomes more streamlined, the data currently used for tax compliance will likely be repurposed for more sophisticated, personalised financial services.

Another important next step is cross-border interoperability. In June 2025, DIAS joined EuroPA through IRIS, giving Greece a path to connect its domestic instant-payment system with a broader European network, starting with Spain, Portugal and Italy. If that progress continues, Greece’s success will no longer be only a local story, but part of a wider shift in European account-to-account payments.

Final Thoughts

Greece demonstrates that regulatory mandates can drive adoption at a scale and pace that organic market growth rarely achieves. By late 2025, the country has built a functioning open banking ecosystem – with instant bank-to-bank payments through IRIS firmly established as a standard payment option alongside cards at virtually every point of sale.

Account Information Services, while present and growing in specific areas such as ERP software, credit assessment and multi-bank account management, remain more limited in reach. Their impact is currently felt most in B2B and lending contexts rather than in everyday consumer use – a pattern consistent with most European markets at this stage.

This article is provided for general informational purposes only.