Digital payments for public services: Andalusia's successful gamble

Before this platform was set up, paying regional taxes often involved physically going to a partner bank with a paper form, which then had to be validated manually. It was a slow, compartmentalized process, limited to certain banking institutions.

"Payment is now instantaneous. Within 24 hours, we match the transaction with the corresponding tax," explained Rafael Morillas, Head of Digital Payments at Inetum Spain.

To achieve this, Inetum designed and integrated a unified digital payment platform covering three channels.

“We had to integrate the e-commerce solution, the in-person payment solution, and the mobile channel,” explained Rafael Morillas.

The whole system was put into production in three months, with features being added gradually. The latest addition is the integration of Bizum for transactions up to €1,500.

The effort and collaboration of Inetum and the companies involved in the implementation of BIZUM as part of the payment methods ecosystem of the Junta de Andalucía, has made it possible to add to the Unified Resources System a fast, convenient, and widely adopted solution, ideal for small‑amount payments, and without the need to enter card details. With this, we reinforce our commitment to a more accessible, efficient Administration that is adapted to the digital reality of citizens.

Security was a non-negotiable prerequisite for this large-scale institutional project. The platform features P2PE (Point-to-Point Encryption) certification, the highest level of security in the payment sector, guaranteeing end-to-end data encryption from the terminal to the payment processor.

“When it comes to payments, security must be an absolute priority,” insisted Rafael Morillas.

This certification was one of the decisive factors in awarding the public contract to Inetum.

The results are quantifiable: an average processing time of less than two seconds per transaction and bank reconciliation completed in less than 24 hours with the tax authorities. Spanish and foreign citizens can now pay all regional taxes by international card, bank transfer, direct debit, or Bizum.

Four people from Inetum and partner companies were enough to carry out the integration, followed by two years of on‑site support.

“We were up and running within three months. We divided the project into successive phases, starting with the priority features,” explained Rafael Morillas.

And the project doesn't stop there. Inetum now proposes using payment terminals as digital signature devices to digitize the administrative procedures associated with payments. This omnichannel approach could soon be replicated by other autonomous communities in Spain.

However, automation does not mean that the machine makes decisions on its own. Administrative rules are translated into instructions that AI applies to documents.

“AI analyzes the context of documents by applying these rules and generates a reasoned response, explicitly indicating which page of the document the information comes from and on what basis it calculates the score,” explained Raquel Gómez Querencia.

Human evaluators use these results as a decision-making aid.

“AI does not replace human intervention, it amplifies the user's analytical capabilities,” she added.

Building on this success, Inetum is continuing its collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Education on other projects aimed at simplifying administrative processes in the sector. The goal is to extend the solution to other use cases in the field of e-learning.