Many European countries successfully operate local mobile payment systems. For examples, look no further than Blik. To become independent from Visa, Mastercard, and big tech, is it enough to simply combine existing schemes and add a few components? It will be more difficult than it seems.
“Payment sovereignty is no longer a future challenge, it's a European necessity” – this is how BNP Paribas CEO Thierry Laborde aptly summarized the problem facing Europe a few months ago. Just a few years ago, independence from American players (of American origin) was barely mentioned. While the vision of European competition for payment giants has a long history, action has been taken with little enthusiasm.
The starting point could be described as “it's going to be tough.” Payment cards are the most popular cashless payment instrument in Europe. Nearly 65% of card transactions in the eurozone are handled by Visa and Mastercard . The share of local card schemes was 39% in 2022, but has since declined by several percentage points. When countries outside the single currency area are included, the figure drops to 36-37%. In the eurozone , card payments in as many as 13 countries rely exclusively on global schemes .
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Card payment processors are also largely composed of non-EU players. Considering the breakdown by country (rather than “EU vs. the rest”), the largest group of entities are institutions whose owners are located in the US. “A noteworthy feature of the ownership structure is the predominance of non-EU investors in payment processors that are active in multiple domestic markets within the EU simultaneously,” as indicated in the ECB report, which we discussed on Bankier.pl.
Two alliances join forces
Could the solution to foreign players' dominance be a move forward, toward mobile payments and replacing back-end card settlements with transfers between bank accounts? This seems to be the vision of the European Payments Initiative (EPI) , established five years ago.
The association's members are large banks, and their product is Wero , a scheme based on an instant transfer infrastructure. Currently, Wero operates in only a few countries (Belgium, Germany, and France) and offers an equivalent of P2P transfers known from Blik. E-commerce payments are expected to see the light of day soon, followed by other features.
Another similar alliance is EuroPA , or the European Payments Alliance. This initiative brings together local mobile payment system operators. Its founding members are Spain's Bizum, Portugal's MB Way (SIBS), and Italy's Bancomat. In 2025, the group was joined by Blik and Norway's Vipps, among others.
In June 2025, EPI and EuroPA announced the launch of their collaboration . The organizations will explore the possibility of jointly offering services in 15 European markets. The options include P2P payments, as well as payments at merchants and online stores. The results of the analyses are expected to be announced by the end of the summer.
Lots of question marks
Since local players know how to achieve success in their own backyards, it might seem like an excellent idea for all those interested in building a European payment system to band together. However, there are still many challenges.
First, EPI and EuroPA have slightly different visions . EuroPA sees a solution in combining existing local solutions and interoperability. The first outcome of the alliance, not coincidentally, was the ability to transfer funds between users of the associated systems. Wero, on the other hand, is a scheme built from scratch, in markets where there has been no significant alternative to payment cards. The alliance's participants would likely prefer to see other solutions “absorbed” under a common umbrella rather than a federated model, but this is not officially discussed.
The result of these differing approaches and visions is the emerging “North and South versus West” divide. This was mentioned, albeit indirectly, by Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, CEO of Polish Payment Standard (Blik's operator), in an interview with Cashless.pl.
There are economic incentives, but only for banks
The second challenge to overcome on the path to “European payments nirvana” may be the motivations of merchants and payers . From an economic perspective, a new payment system has a chance of succeeding in the market if it offers tangible benefits and advantages over its competitors for all parties involved in the transaction .
Sovereignty and European payment independence are slogans that won't change the preferences of the average consumer. They value the ease and speed of paying, for example, contactless by phone. Local mobile payment systems have given users something Visa or Mastercard couldn't (for example, transfers to a phone number), or they have invested considerable effort and resources to promote functionally equivalent (and sometimes superior) substitutes (see Blik online, one click, etc.). However, all this occurs within the limited context of a single market, a single country.
Pan-European mobile competition would have to replicate local successes or (as EuroPA sees it) combine them into a new quality. Meanwhile, card organizations are constantly working on their offerings, not to mention technical details, such as monitoring certain standards (recall that Blik contactless payment is powered by Mastercard).
For banks, alternatives to global cards offer the opportunity to reduce system fees paid to card organizations. The amounts at stake are significant, although measured in hundredths of a percentage point of turnover. The flip side of the coin, however, is the need to promote the new scheme, educate the market, and cover development and marketing expenses.
For merchants, a lower cost could be a lure . However, there's not much room to maneuver here. By introducing limits on interchange fees (0.2-0.5% of transactions) a few years ago, the European Union made payment cards relatively “cheap.” Offering better terms and simultaneously allowing all participants in the new puzzle to profit will be difficult.
Is it going to be a dud?
The answer to the question of the fate of European payment sovereignty won't be revealed anytime soon. For now, the puzzle looks chaotic, and the unknowns include not only the direction of payment alliances, but also their future and place in the digital euro market. Only one thing is certain: “European plastic” will not compete with American products. This idea had already expired before anyone took it seriously.
