The European Union of payments: finding out EuroPA's mission

The Paypers sat down with representatives of each EuroPA member organisation, who provided insights into their strategy, the future of instant payments in Europe, and the main roadblocks ahead.

Europe’s payments industry is entering a new phase, one defined by collaboration, interoperability, and the pursuit of digital sovereignty. For decades, Europe’s fragmented landscape has stood in stark contrast with the dominance of the Visa and Mastercard duopoly. Now, with the rise of instant payments, regulatory momentum, and the ambition to strengthen European payment authority, a new chapter is unfolding.
At the centre of this transformation stands EuroPA – the European Payments Alliance – a coalition of national payments providers working to connect Europe’s domestic champions into a single, interoperable framework. What began as a southern European initiative has, within two years, evolved into a continent-wide collaboration that now covers 10 countries and over 100 million users.

Building a European payments alliance

In December 2023, three mobile payment service providers made a bold move to bring interoperability to European payment solutions. Italy-based interbank network Bancomat, Spanish mobile payment company Bizum, and Portugal-based SIBS (the operator of MB Way, a mobile payment service) sought a partnership to enable users in the three countries to make instant mobile payments, promoting the development of a unified European payments market.

The launch of EuroPA was just the first step made towards interoperability between 45+ million users, as well as 182+ financial institutions.

In 2025, the three founding members of the alliance welcomed three other national payment providers:

• In May 2025, the Nordic wallet Vipps MobilePay joined EuroPA, to enable money transfers between the wallet’s users in the Nordics and several European countries.
• Also in May 2025, the Polish mobile payment system Blik signed the letter of intent to join EuroPA, intending to connect 100+ million people across borders.
• In June 2025, DIAS, the Greek domestic and cross-border payments processor, announced that IRIS, its instant payment service, would become part of EuroPA.

Following these partnerships, EuroPA became a unified payment network, servicing citizens across 10 European countries: Andorra, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

Harnessing Europe’s diversity

To shine a light on EuroPA’s mission, The Paypers sat down with representatives of each member organisation.

Madalena Cascais Tomé, former CEO of SIBS*, Chairperson of EMPSA (the European Mobile Payments Systems Association), and Co-leader of EuroPA

*Editor’s note: at the time of the interview, Madalena was still the CEO of SIBS. In October 2025, it was announced that she would be Worldline’s new Head of Financial Services.

‘Instant payments will continue to be a major driver of innovation across Europe,’ said Madalena Cascais Tomé. ‘They often begin as local innovations but are increasingly expanding into pan-European solutions, particularly strengthening cross-border transactions. My vision is to harness Europe’s diversity – one of its key strengths – to build a payment ecosystem that is sovereign, autonomous, resilient, and yet capable of enabling rapid innovation at the local level.’

She described EuroPA as a practical response to this vision. ‘It brings together leading domestic champions and helps them scale collectively, reinforcing the European payments infrastructure.’

Within the broader European Mobile Payment Systems Association (EMPSA), there are currently 11 successful digital payment solutions operating in their home markets. According to Cascais Tomé, these players are now taking concrete steps toward interoperability.

‘Europe is already seeing integration efforts between Italy’s Bancomat, the Nordics’ VIPPS, and BLIK, which has formally committed to joining. We're preparing for these integrations and expect to announce another initiative in the coming weeks*,’ she added.

*Editor’s note: at the time of recording the interview, IRIS had not joined the alliance yet.

The alliance’s guiding principle, she emphasised, is openness. ‘Any relevant player is welcome to join and help expand this interoperable and collaborative network.’

Blurring the line between domestic and cross-border payments

Asked about how cross-border interoperability is evolving, Cascais Tomé highlighted that the distinction between domestic and international payments is becoming increasingly blurred.

‘SIBS' MB WAY, for instance, is used by nearly 30 PSPs, some of which already operate in multiple countries. So naturally, their reach extends beyond national borders. The same applies to global ecommerce merchants who enable MB WAY across markets. This is how cross-border payments and interoperability evolve – by ensuring that both issuers and merchants allow these solutions wherever they operate.’

Europe’s progress in instant payments, she noted, has been remarkable.

‘Just a few years after launch, instant payments are accessible to virtually all European citizens. Solutions like MB WAY and others are innovating on top of that infrastructure – enabling use cases like peer-to-peer transfers, which previously relied on cash.’

She credited Europe’s success to the interplay between regulation and private sector innovation, which continues to shape evolving consumer behaviour.

‘That’s how we intend to continue leading in the world of payments,’ she concluded.

Collaboration as the new competition

Fernando Rodriguez Ferrer, Deputy Director General of International Expansion at Bizum

Bizum’s Fernando Rodriguez Ferrer noted that collaboration is now central to Europe’s payments vision. ‘We believe collaboration is the new competition. Progress depends on compromise and building things together; otherwise, it’s very hard to compete and scale.’

Bizum’s expansion beyond Spain and Andorra reflects this approach, aligning with EU initiatives such as PSD3 and the Instant Payments Regulation, which are levelling the playing field between card-based and account-to-account payments.

‘The infrastructure is in place for instant payments. Now it’s about building collaboration,’ he said. ‘With initiatives like DIAS recently onboarded, we’re putting the necessary pieces in place for a pan-European payment approach.’

Rodriguez Ferrer highlighted that EuroPA’s strength lies in its maturity and readiness. ‘Today, when a new participant joins, the commercial, operational, legal, and technical frameworks are already in place. That’s a big shift.’

He summarised the current landscape succinctly:

‘Three things set this moment apart:
1.    The technical capabilities are ready.
2.    The regulatory framework, including instant payments, is in place.
3.    We already have scale – 105 million users across EuroPA countries.’

Despite differences in national market maturity, he expressed optimism.

‘Domestic solutions are working well. Now it’s about extending that success across Europe. We’re giving consumers the ability to pay abroad just as they do at home.’

Still, challenges remain. ‘The biggest challenge is alignment. Markets are at different stages; some are already running on instant payments, others are still transitioning. Regulation also lags: today, cards still allow things that account-to-account solutions don’t, though that gap is closing. Cards have had decades to build their networks. Instant payments are just beginning, and the ecosystem needs time to mature. But we’re on the right path. With balanced cooperation, we can create a shared technical framework while minimising the impact on existing use cases,’ he concluded.

A historic moment for European payments

Massimo Itta, Chief Commercial Officer at Bancomat

Bancomat’s Massimo Itta described EuroPA as a historic milestone for Europe’s payment industry.

‘For the first time in over 40 years, Europe is moving beyond cards as the sole payment product that banks issue. Since the early 1980s, cards have dominated, but today they no longer meet consumers' and merchants’ needs.’

He emphasised that instant, account-to-account payments offer real-time settlement, lower costs, and improved user experience – areas where card infrastructure shows its limitations.

‘Strong national initiatives like UPI in India, Pix in Brazil, or Italy’s Bancomat Pay have shown leadership in delivering innovation, efficiency, lower costs, and sovereignty,’ he said. ‘When Europeans pay with cards managed by US international schemes, their transaction data leaves Europe. This creates not only a competitive imbalance but also risks around data ownership and independence.’

EuroPA, he argued, offers a pan-European alternative based on interoperability, not replacement.

‘Every country already has strong infrastructure and user experiences built over decades. Rather than replace them, we can connect them.’

Looking ahead, Itta sees two main challenges: time and infrastructure.

‘We need to accelerate and align our roadmap with broader European initiatives, such as the Digital Euro. There’s no reason these efforts can’t run in parallel, creating synergies in terms of the distribution model. The goal is not to replace or disrupt existing infrastructure, but to find smart ways to connect them. True interoperability should be built on top of current systems without imposing unnecessary costs or burdens on the national entities that form the backbone of Europe’s payments landscape.’

Simplifying payments across borders

Kim Fuglsang Kristoffersen, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Vipps MobilePay

For Vipps MobilePay’s Kim Fuglsang Kristoffersen, the mission within EuroPA is simple: make payments across Europe as easy as they are at home.

‘The collaboration effort in EuroPA means that everyone can keep using their favorite app – with a much wider reach across Europe,’ said Kristoffersen. ‘Vipps MobilePay users will be able to send and receive money to friends and family (peer-to-peer) and to shop online and in-store (commercial payments).’

He described the alliance as an enabler of simplicity.

‘Paying and sending money across Nordic and European borders is not simple enough today. We want to take a very central role in removing that hassle in Europe, together with our partners in EuroPA.’

The challenge, he admitted, lies in technical alignment:

‘Making very easy payments to work seamlessly across borders demands a lot of clever technical solutions that are well in line with local and European rules and regulations. This will not be easy to do – but that is the task at hand.’

Poland’s bridge between North and South

Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, CEO of BLIK Polish Payment Standard

For Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, CEO of BLIK, joining EuroPA marks an important milestone in building bridges between markets.

‘The biggest achievement so far is that Europe’s leading digital payment schemes have agreed on a common framework, starting with core services like P2P instant transfers. For us in Poland, this is especially important – we’re outside the Eurozone, but our customers still deserve the same seamless, interoperable experience.’

While cross-border volumes may grow gradually, he views interoperability as inevitable and strategic.

‘This isn’t just about payments, it’s about strengthening European integration.’

Mazurkiewicz sees Poland as a pivotal connector in Europe’s payment landscape.

‘With over 20 participating banks and more than 30 million customers – 20 million of them active monthly – we’re building bridges between the south and north of Europe.’

He also highlighted the need to clarify relationships between major European initiatives:

‘The Digital Euro must not be positioned in direct competition with P2P transfers. Our solutions already serve millions of users, and we should be seen as complementary, not conflicting.’

Mazurkiewicz pointed to a potential* partnership between EuroPA and the European Payments Initiative (EPI) as a crucial turning point.

*Editor’s note: at the time of the interview, the partnership between EuroPA and EPI was not yet announced. In September 2025, the two initiatives joined forces for the next phase of the European mobile payments alliance.

‘What matters now is not bilateral connections between individual players, but full integration at the alliance level. The earlier interoperability is built, the stronger the ecosystem will be.’

Looking forward, he expects consolidation in Europe’s digital payments market:

‘Different strategies will coexist, but geopolitical pressures are accelerating competition among European payment systems. In the longer term, consolidation in digital payments is likely. That’s why it’s so important that we’ve already agreed on instant P2P interoperability. It’s a pragmatic, achievable step – and a strong foundation to build on.’

Building on European payments infrastructure

Stavroula Kampouridou, CEO at DIAS

According to the DIAS CEO, from Greece’s perspective, national infrastructures remain central to building a truly pan-European instant payments system.

‘In Greece, we share the broader vision for account-to-account real-time payments and European sovereignty,’ said Kampouridou. ‘As the national Automated Clearing House, DIAS operates IRIS – our real-time A2A payment solution, comparable to Blik, Bizum, or MB Way.’

She emphasised the importance of TIPS – the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement system as the foundation for interoperability across the SEPA zone.

‘If cards run on card rails, instant payments now run on TIPS, with SEPA Instant Credit Transfer as the common scheme underpinned by ISO 20022 standards. This provides Europe with a unified infrastructure and a shared ‘language’, governed by the same rules and regulations across the continent.’

Through TIPS, DIAS already supports both national and European PSPs.

‘With EuroPA, what began as cooperation among Mediterranean countries is now expanding to Scandinavia, Poland, Greece, and beyond. Fully connected, we could reach 385 million Europeans.’

Kampouridou believes that leveraging existing infrastructure is the key to success.

‘EuroPA is about respecting national investments while creating a common solution that transcends cultural differences.’

She also underscored the importance of state and central bank support.  

‘The real success comes when there’s also strong support from the state and the central bank. That’s what we see with Pix in Brazil, UPI in India, and it’s also the case here in Greece.’

Greece’s government has already taken concrete steps:

‘By 1 November 2025, to offer customers the option of paying with instant payments through IRIS, our Greek solution,’ she said, aligning with the EU’s own regulation requiring all PSPs to enable instant payments by October 2025.

Kampouridou called this four-way collaboration (banks offering the product, the central bank regulating the environment, the state enforcing adoption, and DIAS operating and innovating the infrastructure) the ‘silver bullet’ for scaling instant payments.

The road ahead for EuroPA

Europe’s diversity is both its greatest strength and its biggest challenge. As Kampouridou observed, ‘the key is not to impose a single mandatory solution, but to respect national systems and build a layer that connects them. That’s what makes EuroPA unique: interoperability instead of replacement.’

EuroPA expects to enable cross-border P2P payments by mid-2026, with further expansion into point-of-sale (POS) and ecommerce following soon thereafter. The latter, as several members noted, will require alignment on technologies such as QR codes, NFC, and merchant integration frameworks to match the seamless user experience already offered by global wallets.

Commercial alignment will be just as critical. As European businesses weigh costs and incentives, EuroPA’s ability to offer a financially attractive, sovereign alternative to global card schemes will determine its long-term viability.

From vision to European reality

The creation of EuroPA marks a decisive step toward a truly European payment ecosystem – one built on cooperation, interoperability, and independence. What began as three national initiatives in Southern Europe has become a continental network uniting ten countries, over 100 million users, and a shared goal: to make instant, account-to-account payments the norm across Europe.

With regulation, infrastructure, and private-sector innovation now aligned, Europe has a unique opportunity to build a payments network that is not only efficient but also strategically sovereign.

The coming years, particularly 2026 and 2027, will determine whether EuroPA can scale its interoperability model across the continent. Success would mean more than just seamless payments; it would redefine Europe’s place in the global financial ecosystem.

If EuroPA achieves its goal, Europe won’t just be playing ‘catch-up’, it will be setting the standard for the next generation of instant, borderless, and sovereign payments.

About the author

Vlad is a Senior Editor at The Paypers, working in the Banking & Fintech team. He uses his research, content, and people skills for all activities revolving around Open Banking and Open Finance. Vlad has a degree in Biology and Molecular Genetics and an extensive background in creative writing. You can reach out to him on LinkedIn or email.