EPI CEO Calls for Urgent Creation of Independent Payment System 'Airbus'
The CEO of the European Payments Initiative (EPI) emphasized Europe's heavy reliance on Visa and Mastercard's international schemes, stating that independence is crucial and urgent action is needed. The chairman of the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee called for the establishment of a 'payment system Airbus' to prevent the U.S. from potentially cutting access, similar to sanctions against Russia.
In 2025, 42% of card payments in Europe will be processed by Visa/Mastercard, with the UK ratio reaching 98%; an agreement was signed in February this year to connect local payment applications in Belgium, Italy, Portugal, etc., forming a network covering 13 countries and 130 million users, with cross-border payments launching this year and e-commerce and offline coverage by 2027.
In terms of market mechanisms, European institutions and corporate funds are accelerating investment in local payment infrastructure, with the EPI project benefiting from strengthened regional control, while Visa/Mastercard face long-term share pressure in Europe. Event-driven capital is shifting towards hedging geopolitical risks and concentrating on localized payment networks.
Source: Public Information
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EPI has previously advanced integration through multiple local payment applications, a path similar to Europe's repeated pushes for strategic autonomy in energy and chip sectors, accompanied by concerns over U.S. dominance in payments and attempts at local solutions.
On the capital front, Europe is mobilizing resources through agreements and public funding to accelerate the network construction across 13 countries, attracting local banks and users for long-term use, rather than relying on international card organizations, forming a closed-loop resource delivery system from cross-border payments to offline e-commerce to reduce external cutoff risks.
Similar cases include Europe's efforts on SWIFT alternatives and the chip act promoting local manufacturing, currently in a deep transformation phase from international dependence to regional autonomous control in payments, although critics argue that the risk of U.S. cutoff may be exaggerated.
Structurally, this is essentially a regulatory change, with expectations of geopolitical risks driving the localization of European payment infrastructure, where the 'just in case' mentality forces capital to shift from efficient international networks to regional redundancy and autonomous systems, reshaping the pricing power distribution in the cross-border payment industry chain.
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The depth of reliance defines insurance costs: 42% or even 98% share at a moment, an autonomous network is a geopolitical risk hedging leverage.
Geopolitical games do not bet on probabilities but on consequences: U.S. self-harm concerns can easily arise, while Europe still spends money on insurance structures for 'things that will never happen.'
Infrastructure sells redundancy rather than efficiency: whoever locks in regional closed-loop coverage first will grasp the next round of payment pricing power and strategic autonomy advantage.