Some of Europe’s largest domestic payment schemes are joining forces to create a new cross-border network designed to reduce the continent’s reliance on US-controlled card infrastructure.
European Payments Groups Unite
Bancomat, Bizum, the European Payments Initiative behind Wero, SIBS-MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay have formed a new company, the European Network for Payments, which will be headquartered in Madrid and operate a common interoperability hub.
Together, the founding members serve around 130 million users across 13 European countries, covering more than 70% of the population of the EU and Norway.
The ambition is not to replace existing national payment brands, but to connect them.
Interoperability Becomes the Core Strategy
Consumers will continue using the apps they already know, while the new network provides the technical layer needed to make those services work across borders.
The infrastructure will connect participating schemes through a common operational framework based on European standards and instant account-to-account payments.
That approach tackles one of the biggest weaknesses of Europe’s payments landscape: fragmentation.
National schemes such as Bizum in Spain, Bancomat in Italy and MB WAY in Portugal have built significant domestic adoption, but their reach largely ends at national borders. Wero and Vipps MobilePay are pursuing broader regional ambitions, yet none individually has the continental scale of Visa or Mastercard.
By making those systems interoperable, the new venture hopes to create reach without forcing consumers or merchants onto another entirely new payments platform.
Person-to-Person Payments Come First
The rollout will be phased. Cross-border person-to-person payments will be the initial focus, followed by e-commerce and point-of-sale acceptance.
For consumers, that could eventually mean sending money to someone elsewhere in Europe using a familiar domestic payment app rather than switching to a card, bank transfer interface or separate international wallet.
For merchants, the attraction is broader European acceptance through locally recognised payment methods and infrastructure built and governed within Europe.
The founding organisations will hold equal stakes in the new entity, which will oversee technical coordination and expansion. Other European payment providers may be allowed to join later.
Payments Sovereignty Gains Commercial Momentum
The initiative arrives as European policymakers place increasing emphasis on payments sovereignty.
Dependence on international card schemes has long been viewed as a strategic vulnerability, but geopolitical tensions have added urgency to efforts to develop stronger European alternatives.
The project also sits alongside the planned digital euro, which could potentially complement rather than compete with privately operated European payment schemes.
The challenge will be achieving sufficient transaction volume to make the network economically sustainable. Its shareholders are expected to absorb operating costs while the infrastructure is built and adoption grows.
Europe may not need to invent another payments system from scratch. By connecting the schemes consumers already use, it may finally have found a more realistic route towards a genuinely pan-European payments network.
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