Five payment groups serving 130 million users are teaming up to build an alternative to Visa and Mastercard, starting with instant transfers across borders.
You pay for a coffee, buy something online or send money to a friend abroad. It takes seconds. But behind that everyday transaction lies a bigger question: who controls the systems that keep money moving?
Five European payment groups are joining forces to give Europe more control over that infrastructure, and offer an alternative to its reliance on Visa and Mastercard.
The partners announced the European Network for Payments, or ENP, on Wednesday. Based in Madrid, it will connect payment services that already have a combined audience of around 130 million users across 13 European countries.
Five European payment groups are joining forces to give Europe more control over that infrastructure, and offer an alternative to its reliance on Visa and Mastercard.
The founders are Italy’s Bancomat, Spain’s Bizum, EPI Company, which operates Wero, Portugal’s SIBS-MB WAY and the Nordic service Vipps MobilePay.
Different apps, the same conversation
The idea is straightforward: make existing European payment services work together across national borders.
Rather than asking everyone to switch to one new app, the network aims to connect the services people already use. A customer using one participating service could send money to someone using another, with payments moving instantly between bank accounts.
The rollout will begin with transfers between individuals in different countries. Online shopping and payments in physical stores are planned to follow. Technical preparations are underway, so the announcement does not mean the full network is ready to use.
There is also a political purpose. European policymakers want less dependence on overseas companies for essential payment infrastructure, amid concerns about how international tensions could affect access to it, Reuters reported.
But ambition alone will not make the network successful. It needs sufficient scale, businesses willing to accept it and a service customers find convenient. Reuters reports that shareholders will cover operating costs in the early years while the infrastructure is built.
What could it mean for us?
For Cyprus, the connection is a potential future one. The announcement does not identify a Cypriot payment service among the founding partners or set out a launch date here.
If the network eventually becomes available locally, it could offer another way to send money to family elsewhere in Europe, pay when traveling or shop online. Businesses serving European visitors could also gain another payment option.
Whether that happens, and whether it brings lower costs, will depend on participation, pricing and acceptance. None of those benefits is guaranteed by this announcement.
For now, the interesting shift is that Europe’s payment services are trying to work together across borders. Their success could eventually change the choices we have when a cashier asks: “How would you like to pay?”
*With information from Reuters
