Viva.com becomes the first international bank directly connected to Portugal’s Multibanco network

Viva.com has made a direct technical connection to Multibanco, Portugal’s national payment network, becoming the first international bank to connect directly to the MB Scheme. For merchants on Viva.com, that means direct acceptance of MB cards and MB WAY across in-store and e-commerce flows, without routing through intermediary payment processors.

1. Viva.com says the integration gives local and European businesses on its platform access to more than 9 million active MB cardholders and over 7 million MB WAY users. The payment methods can now be accepted across the merchant ecosystem from a single infrastructure layer.
2. The bank’s pitch is straightforward: instead of treating Europe as one uniform payments market, it connects directly to individual national schemes. In practice, that is how you reduce fragmentation without forcing every checkout into the same pan-European template.
3. The rollout covers both physical and online acceptance. In-store, MB card and MB WAY acceptance is enabled through Viva.com’s “Tap on Any Device” technology on more than 1,215 supported Android devices and iPhones; online, transactions run through Smart Checkout and integrated marketplace environments.
4. Pedro Saldanha, country manager of Portugal at Viva.com, said the company is “the first international Bank to have direct connectivity to the national MB payment scheme, processing MB and MB WAY transactions through our own terminal software.” He framed the move as part of Viva.com’s push to support Portuguese businesses and their digital transformation.
5. For merchants operating across Europe, the immediate commercial point is acceptance of payments from Portuguese consumers traveling or shopping internationally. Viva.com also says Portuguese merchants on its platform now get access to more than 40 international and local payment methods, including MB and MB WAY.