Europe's payment sovereignty ambition: breaking free from transatlantic dependency?

Robrecht Vandormael, Senior Managing Director and Head of Financial Services at FTI Consulting, analyses Europe’s approach to payments sovereignty.

For decades, European consumers and businesses have conducted most payments transactions through the two so-called US card networks: Visa and Mastercard. By processing a significant amount of payments across the EU, they are setting rules and, critically, sitting at the centre of the financial infrastructure. Considering the sharpening geopolitical tensions between the EU and the US, European politicians have identified dependency as more than a commercial inconvenience, now seeing it as a strategic vulnerability, an assessment that has been fuelled by the current US administration’s stance towards Europe.

Europe’s political ambition to reduce dependence on the US is real; however, this framing needs nuance in payments. Both networks are genuinely global, deeply embedded in European financial infrastructure, and broadly aligned with European regulatory standards and values around consumer protection and data privacy. Domestic schemes, like France's Cartes Bancaires, Germany's Girocard, and Belgium's Bancontact, have long coexisted with them, and both Visa and Mastercard have invested substantially in localising operations, partnering with European institutions, and meeting EU compliance requirements. Although they are not adversaries, the concentration of critical payment infrastructure in the hands of two foreign-headquartered entities has raised questions — both about geopolitics and the nature of resilience itself.

What does European payments resilience look like?

The case for European payments sovereignty is sometimes framed in narrow geopolitical terms: what if Washington weaponised financial networks against European interests? That scenario, while not implausible given the use of financial infrastructure as statecraft in the Russia-Ukraine context, deserves additional context, and resilience is more complex.

In payments, resilience is multidimensional, and technological matters just as much as geopolitical resilience. We’re looking at a complex picture, in which Visa and Mastercard are, by many measures, leaders in cybersecurity, fraud detection, and hybrid-threat response. Their investment in AI-driven risk systems, tokenisation, and real-time transaction monitoring is substantial. A European payments ecosystem creating fragmentation without matching that technological depth could inadvertently reduce systemic security. Yes, Europe’s political ambition is outspoken. Dependency, even on trusted partners, carries risk in today’s world: in innovation roadmaps, in crisis scenarios, and in the ability to set standards rather than follow them.

The instant payments foundation

The EU's most notable move toward payments autonomy is the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR), which entered into force in 2024. It mandates that all eurozone payment providers offer real-time credit transfers (settled within seconds, 24/7) at no premium over standard transfers, with cross-border interoperability required across the bloc.

The structural relevance of this move lies in the fact that account-to-account (A2A) instant payments can bypass card rails. The regulation is therefore a deliberate infrastructure move, helping to build the rails on which European alternatives can credibly run.

Wero: the European market-led payments challenger

The market response is Wero, the consumer wallet launched by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a consortium of major banks across France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and beyond.

Built on the regulation-mandated instant payments rails, it benefits from bank-level trust, broad distribution through existing banking apps, and a deliberate design to keep value in European hands.  Wero enables real-time person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) payments, with cross-border rollout expanding progressively.

The ambition is an interoperable, bank-backed wallet that functions seamlessly from Lisbon to Warsaw — a European alternative to Visa and Mastercard. 

The digital euro: public infrastructure

Alongside these private-sector efforts, the European Central Bank is advancing the digital euro — a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) designed to be a universally accessible public infrastructure. Legal tender, operable offline, and insulated from commercial motives, the digital euro would provide a monetary anchor in a space increasingly shaped by private intermediaries. A legislative framework is expected by the end of the year or soon after.

Its proponents (mainly central banks) frame it as the only instrument capable of guaranteeing truly sovereign, public digital payments, independent of any private network, European or otherwise.

Are Wero and the digital euro complementary or competing?

The visions for Wero and the digital euro sit in uncomfortable proximity. Both target everyday digital payments and seek wallet space on the same consumer devices. European central bankers present them as complementary, with the digital euro acting as a foundation, and Wero as a private layer built on top. Supposing the digital euro mandates broad acceptance and rides regulatory tailwinds, it could undercut the commercial model sustaining Wero. Conversely, if Wero reaches dominant scale first, the public option may arrive too late to matter. How Europe manages this tension will shape its payments architecture for a generation. 

Stablecoins – another contender to cross-border sovereign infrastructure

One other pressure point deserves attention: USD stablecoins (backed by Washington's increasingly supportive legislative stance) are extending dollar dominance into digital and cross-border payment flows, including corridors into Europe. No EUR-denominated stablecoin has achieved comparable scale. If USD stablecoins become the default medium for digital cross-border settlement, Europe risks ceding yet another monetary layer to foreign infrastructure: dollar hegemony for the digital age. This adds urgency to an already crowded agenda, which Europe has noticed, and is now looking to review its pioneer crypto asset regulation (MiCA).

Conclusion

European payments sovereignty is a real political ambition. However, it needs nuance as it should not be a case against the US or transatlantic cooperation, but for strategic depth: the capacity to innovate independently, respond to crises without foreign permission, and set standards rather than adopt them. Building that capacity through regulation, public infrastructure, and private initiative is one of the defining economic policy ambitions of this decade. 

About the author

Robrecht is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Financial Services at FTI Consulting in Brussels, overseeing a wide range of payments and financial technology clients. He helps them understand and manage complex EU policy and legislative issues that will impact their business, as well as advises them on broader political reputation management to grow or protect their freedom to operate. Robrecht is a member of the European Commission Payment Systems Expert Group, which advises the European Commission on payments policy and legislation. 

 

About FTI Consulting

FTI Consulting is a global business advisory firm providing multidisciplinary solutions to complex challenges. It has a worldwide network of over 6,600 employees across 29 countries, spanning six continents. FTI Strategic Communications helps companies around the world manage change, mitigate risk, and enhance their market position.