Europe is building its own payment network to finally compete with Visa and Mastercard

A New Joint Venture for European Payment Sovereignty

Payment organizations have launched a new joint venture to promote Europe's sovereignty in the payments industry. The European Network for Payments (ENP) is designed to increase interoperability among competing networks, building a common EU infrastructure that should theoretically give Visa, Mastercard, and other US-based giants a very hard time on European soil. Ultimately, ENP could help reduce Europe's reliance on US-based payment networks as tensions between Washington and Europe continue to grow.

Founding Members and Coverage

The original ENP initiative launched in 2023, but European sovereignty is now becoming a truly critical issue. The new network's founders include:

• Bizum (Spain)
• Bancomat (Italy)
• European digital wallet company Wero
• SIBS-MB WAY
• Vipps MobilePay

Together, these payment networks already cover 70% of Europe's and Norway's population, serving the payment needs of 130 million users across 13 different European countries.

Phased Rollout and Technical Approach

Rather than creating a completely new network, ENP will work on building closer partnerships among payment networks that already exist. First, the new Madrid-based organization will focus on properly connecting the existing networks, adopting a common technical and operational infrastructure based on European standards.

According to ENP's deployment plan, the common infrastructure will go through a phased rollout, starting with:

1. Cross-border payments
2. In-person transactions

Future Expansion and Membership

ENP should eventually expand its reach to e-commerce and other online payments, in-store point-of-sale transactions, and essentially everything else. ENP proponents said the organization expects to welcome additional members in the future, further increasing the network's ability to cover the payment needs of European citizens.

ENP expects to absorb the network's operating costs at first, allowing the basic infrastructure to be built before it begins generating its own fees.

Industry Context and Complementary Initiatives

According to European Payments Initiative CEO Martina Weimert, fragmentation has long hindered any major attempt to build a common payment platform within the Old Continent. ENP is now offering a cooperation-based answer, asking other EU-based payment organizations to join the effort as well.

The European Central Bank is also working on its own solution for a common payment tool with the digital euro currency. A few years down the line, the bank-controlled euro wallet might become a complementary payment platform to ENP.