The EuroPA alliance is partnering with the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to explore opportunities for connecting European consumers and merchants across 15 countries. The initiative aims to support all payment types—from peer-to-peer (P2P) payments to enterprise-level transactions.
Under this model, users will be able to use their preferred digital payment solutions both locally and across Europe. Provisions will also be made for countries that don’t yet have established systems of their own.
An Alliance and a Consortium
The EuroPA alliance includes mobile payment players across Europe, such as Bancomat, Bizum, Blik, MB WAY (SIBS), and Vipps MobilePay. Its goal is to create an interoperable mobile platform built on the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) real-time payments protocol. Support for SEPA was mandated in the region at the beginning of this year.
EPI, for its part, is a consortium of 16 European financial services companies whose initial focus has been the Wero digital wallet—a product designed to serve as a unified mobile payment solution for retail transactions.
Wero launched last year in Germany before expanding to Belgium and France. One of its initial use cases was to allow users to complete P2P transactions in seconds using a QR code, email address, or phone number.
Functionality for cross-border and merchant payments is in development for Wero, and EPI plans to evolve the wallet into an all-encompassing platform—supporting everything from recurring payments to buy now, pay later.
A Eurocentric Solution
Combining EPI’s digital wallet with the mobile platforms of EuroPA’s members is a logical step, given the organizations’ agenda—to enhance Europe’s sovereignty in payments by building a better cross-border solution.
Concerns have been growing in Europe over the dominance of Visa and Mastercard, especially as USD-backed stablecoins gain traction in the region.
This reliance on both U.S. companies and the dollar has drawn criticism in Europe, prompting calls for a more Eurocentric solution. Both the European Commission and the Eurosystem have stated that one of the fastest ways to strengthen the payments system is by interconnecting existing payment solutions.
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