Orange lined up a September 2019 launch for its banking service in Spain, almost two years after its debut in home market France.

Spanish publication El Espanol reported Laurent Paillassot, CEO of Orange Spain, announced the target for Orange Bank during a launch of a new service offering digital products tailored for Spanish SMEs

Earlier this year, Orange confirmed Spain would be the second country to receive its mobile-only banking service, although the timelines were sketchy.

Orange Bank has proved popular so far, with more than 100,000 users signing up to the service between its launch in November 2017 and May 2018. Belgium has been targeted as the company’s third market after Spain.

In his comments, Paillassot reportedly opened up on the operator’s struggles in obtaining a licence to operate the service in Spain, which means it will likely have to use a French licence instead.

This could explain why it will take until Q3 2019 for the service to launch in the country.

He also said the model adopted will replicate Orange Bank in France, which runs as an online only play, giving customers real-time balance updates, mobile payment capabilities and anytime access to a virtual adviser.

By 2027, Orange aims to have 2 million users on its European banking platform.