Approximately 130 million Europeans now have access to a homegrown payment system designed to challenge American financial dominance — the question is whether they'll actually use it.
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) launched commercially this year, offering a unified payment solution across multiple EU member states after years of development. The system allows consumers to pay directly from their bank accounts without routing transactions through Visa or Mastercard networks.
Participating countries include France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, with banks representing 130 million potential users. The system operates through a digital wallet called "Wero," which enables instant bank-to-bank transfers for purchases — similar to how domestic systems like Sweden's Swish or Poland's BLIK already function nationally.
The strategic motivation: Every card transaction in Europe currently enriches American companies. Visa and Mastercard collect fees on both ends — from merchants and card issuers — and the infrastructure routes through US-controlled networks subject to American sanctions and surveillance laws.
"Digital sovereignty" is Brussels jargon for this: Europe wants payment infrastructure it controls, where Washington can't suddenly cut off access or monitor transactions for geopolitical purposes.
But consumer adoption remains uncertain. Europeans already carry Visa and Mastercard — cards that work everywhere, including outside Europe. Wero only functions where merchants install compatible systems, creating a chicken-and-egg problem: Consumers won't adopt it unless merchants accept it, and merchants won't install it unless consumers demand it.
National digital payment systems succeeded in countries like and because they launched in markets without entrenched card dominance and offered clear advantages like instant peer-to-peer transfers. EPI faces the harder task of displacing incumbents in mature markets.
