Five European payment giants unite to challenge Visa and Mastercard
Original: Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130 million Europeans switch to a 100% sovereign payment from 2026
Why This Matters
Creates first major European alternative to US payment card networks
Five major European mobile payment services including Spain's Bizum, Italy's Bancomat, and France's Wero are forming an alliance to create a sovereign payment network. The unified system will serve 130 million users across 13 countries starting 2026, enabling transactions without US infrastructure.
European payment services Bizum (Spain), Bancomat (Italy), MB WAY (Portugal), Vipps MobilePay (Nordic countries), and Wero (France) are creating a unified network to challenge Visa and Mastercard dominance. The alliance will establish a central interoperability hub in H1 2026, allowing cross-border transfers between users of different services without changing user habits. Person-to-person transfers launch in 2026 across 13 countries, followed by online and in-store payments in 2027. The network will cover 72% of EU and Norway populations. EuroPA prototype already connects Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra, processing 6 million euros since March 2025.