Bizum has revolutionized instant payments between friends. It is no longer necessary to make a transfer and wait one day to receive money or carry cash to pay debts between friends. With the user’s mobile phone and the bank’s app, all payments can now be made. In fact, 20 million users were reached in April (they are now approaching 22 million) and have already exceeded 1,000 million transactions. All of them are checked for compliance with all requirements, that is, usually when a concept can lead to any illegal activity, the legal departments of banks contact people to find out more details. There are a few words, amounts of money or payments that cause anxiety.

These are the words that everyone imagines: weapons, war, bomb, drugs, terrorist attacks … In many cases, this case, put on Bizum, is done as a joke, but it must pass control. Sources in the banking sector explain that the words used to investigate the payment are typical, but they go further and not only investigate if it says “hitman’s revolver”.. In fact, for security reasons, they do not list what they are, although they understand that in many cases the word is not dangerous.

Banks explain that with this control they comply with laws and regulations to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. Transactions through Bizum amount to thousands every dayso there are automata that detect patterns and anything that sounds weird generates an alert that gets checked.

Bizum has standard rules and then all organizations have their own which can be more restrictive but always based on the rules of the payment company. Financial sources consulted Independent They explain that all movements are verified through heavy use of data, and when an alarm is triggered, the entity intervenes, the client is notified, the money is not sent, and the service can even be paralyzed.

Bizum cancellations happen frequently as this payment system is widely used and very convenient for everyone, so it is normal to see a lot of notifications. However, the sector assures that there is not much difference in transfers, which are also reviewed individually. In this case, the biggest difference is that payments with Bizum are instant and you will have to intervene faster than with transfers, which usually take several hours or even a day.

It happened to a Twitter user this summer. As he explains in the thread, he made a payment through this platform to a friend with the “Weapons of Syria” concept, which never reached the recipient and left his account. He received a call from an entity who explained why this blockade occurred, and according to what he points out, “They told him that if the concept was right, there would be no problem.”

In a thread created by this user, there is a response from another who claims to have received a call from his bank about a two euro transaction in which he put “orders will go (sic)”, and explained the situation that finally, in the end fixed. Nonetheless, it indicates that in other payments with other concepts, the transaction has been canceled.

This is another example:

However, this concept is not the only reason why alarm bells are ringing in the security services. The amount of money or time a person earns bizum the same user is also taken into account. This also causes the transaction to be stopped and an investigation by the bank or legal entity initiated. In addition, banks use all their services to prevent money laundering through this method.

Currently limit of transactions received through Bizum is 60 transactions per month to avoid violations and 2000 euros per day. As the Bank of Spain warned, if a payment is made to a person who has exceeded it, the platform sends a message warning that this operation cannot be carried out and there will be no movement of funds from your account. However, the user can make payments through the tool.

According to Bizum rules, the minimum amount per transaction is 0.50 euros, and the maximum is 1000 euros. Considering that each banking institution can set or change limits, CaixaBank decided in June that the maximum limit is 500 euros.