Accepting IRIS as a merchant

DIAS does not contract merchants. Its FAQ states that merchants are serviced by banks or payment service providers, and that a business contacts its bank or PSP to start. DIAS names Alpha Bank, Piraeus Bank, National Bank of Greece, Eurobank, Credia Bank, Optima Bank, Vivabank and Cooperative Bank of Chania as offering IRIS Commerce. At Alpha Bank, for example, the merchant books a branch appointment to sign the agreement and register the business with DIAS, and Nexi then sends the technical instructions to link the e-shop.

A PSP can also sit in front of the bank as gateway. Adyen documents that a merchant integrating IRIS through Adyen must contract with one of the IRIS acquiring banks and tell that bank that Adyen is the gateway. That is two contracts for one method, and the price, the refund route and the settlement file can each sit in either of them.

IRIS is a Greek method in euro. Viva.com offers it to merchants registered in Greece and to customers in Greece only. DIAS reports 4.25 million registered IRIS P2P users and 580,000 professionals on IRIS P2Pro, and states that supermarkets, restaurants and pharmacies record the highest IRIS Commerce volumes at physical points of sale.

For IRIS Commerce DIAS states that there is no transaction limit for customers or merchants, and that the payer needs no registration beyond access to mobile banking. Every provider in the index offers IRIS to merchants established in Greece, so a group selling to Greek shoppers from an entity elsewhere should first establish with its provider whether IRIS can be contracted on that entity at all.

IRIS has no card authorisation to reverse, and providers price a refund as a separate line. Viva.com prints a cost of 0.30 euro for a reversal on cancellation or return of IRIS Online Payments, and Everypay prints a cost of 0.30 euro per refund in its table of additional costs, without limiting it to one method.

On a 40 euro order the payment costs 0.24 euro at Viva.com's published rate and the refund 0.30 euro. On the same 2 million euro and 50,000 orders, a return rate of 15% means 7,500 refunds and 2,250 euro in refund fees, on top of 12,000 euro in payment fees. That line does not appear in a comparison of transaction rates, and for a merchant with high return volumes it is the largest cost line after the payments themselves.

Ask for the refund fee in the same quote as the transaction rate, and for confirmation that a partial refund is priced the same as a full one. Viva.com supports both.

DIAS states that under Law 5193/2025 all legal entities have been required to accept instant payment services since 1 December 2025, at the point of sale and in the e-shop. Sole proprietorships dealing with consumers fall under Law 5072/2023 and, according to DIAS, need no IRIS on their POS devices, because IRIS P2Pro runs through mobile banking.

The legal form also changes the price. Viva.com's 0.50 euro cap applies to natural persons, sole traders and freelancers, so a company pays the full percentage on a large basket: on a 1,000 euro order, 0.60% is 6 euro. Adyen states that its current understanding is that the obligation may also apply to merchants without a local entity, so a group selling into Greece from abroad should establish in writing whether it applies to them.

What you pay for IRIS is set in your agreement with your bank or PSP, not by DIAS. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, and where IRIS carries a material share of your Greek volume, price the refund fee and the settlement terms together with the rate before you renew.

Relevant markets: Greece