Visa is helping usher in a new phase for Europe’s mobile payments market, enabling the launch of three digital wallets and supporting a fourth in pilot form, following a major regulatory shift that opened Apple’s NFC hardware to rivals.
Visa wallets land in Europe
The move, made possible by the EU’s Digital Markets Act, marks a decisive break from the era in which Apple Pay held privileged access to tap-to-pay functionality on iOS devices.
Now, banks and fintechs can bring their own wallets to the iPhone — and Visa is positioning itself at the centre of this shift.
Mobile wallets already account for the majority of European e-commerce transactions, with Visa estimating that their share will rise from 59 per cent today to around 75 per cent by 2030.
A growing proportion of consumers expect to rely solely on mobile wallets. Against that backdrop, Visa’s partnerships reflect an industry tilting firmly toward wallet-centric ecosystems that promise speed, simplicity and embedded financial control.
BBVA, Klarna and Vipps Broaden Wallet Landscape
The most striking launch comes from Spain’s BBVA, whose BBVA Pay wallet becomes the first globally to deploy Visa’s own SDK to integrate the Visa Token Service directly.
This replaces card credentials with secure digital tokens, allowing issuers to control the risk environment while delivering a slick, Apple-native user experience.
For BBVA, it is a strategic statement: a proprietary wallet on iOS, backed by global rails but shaped by the bank’s own design and data.
Klarna has pushed its own offering to 14 European markets, extending tap-to-pay to its app and tightening the loop between its cards, flexible payment plans and its growing “shopping super-app” ambitions.
For a fintech that has long relied on partnerships with networks and banks, the ability to operate a unified wallet on both Android and iOS marks a step closer to owning more of the customer journey.
In the Nordics, Vipps MobilePay — already a dominant local wallet — is layering Visa co-badging onto its service.
The result: users can tap and pay anywhere Visa is accepted, while retaining the peer-to-peer and day-to-day features that made Vipps a regional fixture. Denmark, Finland and Sweden will follow Norway’s rollout.
Italy’s domestic scheme, BANCOMAT, will meanwhile test VisaPay technology in early 2026.
For a scheme deeply woven into the country’s banking fabric, Visa’s tokenisation infrastructure provides a bridge beyond national borders without eroding its local presence.
Wallets Move Beyond Payments
The launches speak to a broader evolution.
European wallets are no longer confined to contactless payments; they are becoming multipurpose digital containers for identity, public services, real-time bank payments, loyalty, tickets and digital keys.
As Open Banking and embedded finance reshape the industry, the winners will be those able to fuse security with seamless cross-channel experiences.
Visa aims to be the connective tissue for this next phase, offering rails for cards, account-to-account transfers and tokenised assets.
With Europe’s regulatory environment now favouring diversity rather than exclusivity, the race to reinvent the wallet is well underway — and Visa has ensured it is running alongside every major contender.
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