Major European wallets agree cross-border payments rollout

Europe’s long-running ambition to reclaim control over its payments infrastructure has taken a tangible step forward.

A new memorandum of understanding signed by Bancomat, Bizum, SIBS, Vipps MobilePay and EPI Company marks one of the most credible industry-led efforts yet to deliver a sovereign, pan-European payments alternative.

Europe’s payments dependency

European wallets agree cross-border rollout

For years, European policymakers have warned that the continent’s reliance on non-European card schemes and wallets represents a strategic vulnerability.

What distinguishes this agreement is its pragmatism. Rather than creating a single, monolithic system from scratch, the signatories intend to connect existing, widely used payment solutions through interoperability.

Together, the participating schemes already serve around 130 million users across 13 European countries, covering roughly 72 per cent of the EU and Norwegian population.

That scale gives the initiative immediate relevance.

It also sends a clear signal that Europe’s banks and payment service providers are no longer waiting for a regulatory fix, but are moving ahead with market-ready infrastructure.

“This agreement demonstrates that Europe’s payment sovereignty is not a vision, but a reality in the making,” comments Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI.

“Solutions like Wero already exist and are live in several countries. By connecting them through interoperability with our partners, we are laying the foundations for a truly European payment ecosystem, built on solutions that are already live and trusted by users.”

Interoperability, not replacement

At the heart of the agreement is a central interoperability hub, to be operated by a jointly owned entity.

This hub will function as a technical layer, allowing transactions to flow seamlessly between national and pan-European solutions using existing European standards, including instant account-to-account payments.

Crucially, none of the participating wallets will be replaced or rebranded.

Consumers will continue to use the apps they already trust, while merchants will gain access to a broader pool of European customers without defaulting to international payment players.

A shared acceptance badge, sitting alongside existing brands, is intended to make this cross-border usability visible at the point of payment.

From peer-to-peer to the checkout

The roadmap is deliberately phased. Cross-border peer-to-peer payments are scheduled for rollout in 2026, followed by e-commerce and point-of-sale transactions in 2027.

That sequencing reflects where interoperability can be delivered fastest, while laying the groundwork for more complex merchant use cases.

The initiative builds directly on the experience of the EuroPA alliance, which has already enabled cross-border transfers between Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra.

In 2025 alone, more than €6 million was transferred across borders through these links without any promotional push, underlining latent consumer demand.

A credible foundation for payment sovereignty

Perhaps most importantly, this agreement reframes European payment sovereignty as an achievable engineering challenge rather than a distant policy aspiration.

By connecting proven domestic systems — including EPI’s Wero wallet — the industry is assembling a federated model that respects Europe’s diversity while delivering scale.

If execution matches intent, the result could be Europe’s first genuinely competitive, home-grown alternative for everyday digital payments — built not in theory, but on infrastructure already in use by millions.