More than 30 large European banks and credit card processors are trying to set up a European payments giant to break the monopoly of several U.S. companies such as MasterCard, Visa and PayPal in the payments industry.
The Financial Times reports that these European financial players have proposed the “European Payments Initiative” (EPI) last year, setting up a team of 40 payments experts and having to draft a blueprint for a pan-European payments service by September, which covers online payments, physical store payments and ATM cash withdrawals.
EPI chairman Joachim Schmalzl said the plan aims to create a strong European payments giant “to counteract PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, Google and Apple.
The banks and acquirers participating in the EPI, which handles more than half of Europe’s payments business, include Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit and Banco Internacional de España (Santander), among others. The EU Executive Committee and the eurozone financial supervisory authorities also support the plan.
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