European e-commerce company Klarna launched social media mobile payments platform Wavy, hailing the service as the most accessible peer-to-peer (P2P) system on the continent.

Wavy is a bid to take advantage of the increasingly competitive P2P payment market, where consumers can pay each other small amounts of money or share transactions such as dividing bills in restaurants.

Rather than transferring money from app to app – as many mobile P2P payment systems do – Wavy provides a link to the payment, which can be shared through chat or social media platforms.

The money can then be claimed and sent to any bank account accepting payment in Euros.

Wavy is available to users aged 18 years old and over who have a bank account or credit card in a total of 31 markets, comprised of the 28 EU member states, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Growing competition
In addition to traditional remittance companies, which generally focus on international transfer, companies including Facebook, WhatsApp, PayPal and retail banks are all launching services in a range of markets aimed at taking a slice of the growing P2P market.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski (pictured) said: “[W]e have been working to develop a product that truly reflects how people live today and their social interactions. There are no borders in an online context, why should there be in payments? Klarna was founded with the goal to make online payments safe, simple and smooth, Wavy is another step on that journey.”

The company provides a range of financial services to a customer base of 60 million. In June, Klarna signed a strategic agreement with Visa to boost its abilities in m-commerce.