Europe's New Payment Network ENP Aims for Financial Independence Against Visa and Mastercard

Europe's new payment network, European Network for Payments (ENP), aims for the financial independence of the continent against Visa and Mastercard.

The new joint initiative, called European Network for Payments (ENP), aims to transform the continent's financial infrastructure by connecting payment institutions across Europe. This strategic step is seen as one of the most concrete steps taken to reduce Europe's dependence on US-based Visa and Mastercard on payment systems.

Although the foundations of the project were laid in 2023, Europe's independence in the payment field has gained much more critical importance today due to global economic and political tensions. By bringing together organizations operating in 13 different countries across Europe, a huge network structure reaching 130 million users in total is created.

A New Payment Ecosystem in Europe

The founders of the new initiative include important players such as Bizum from Spain, Bancomat from Italy and the European-based digital wallet Wero. Additionally, Portugal-based SIBS-MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay are among the founding members of this comprehensive network.

When these organizations' existing payment networks are combined, a wide coverage area emerges that appeals to approximately 70 percent of the European and Norwegian population. ENP plans to integrate existing systems rather than building a new payment network from scratch.

The Madrid-based organization focuses on creating a common technical and operational infrastructure that will ensure that different payment networks work in harmony with each other in the first stage. This infrastructure is aimed to be completely based on European standards and provide a secure data flow.

According to ENP's road map, the common infrastructure will be phased in and the first phase will focus on cross-border payments and transactions in physical stores. In the future, the system will spread to much wider usage areas such as e-commerce, online payments and in-store POS transactions.

Future Integration and the Digital Euro

In the following stages, other European payment institutions are expected to join this network, thus aiming to increase the number of users and countries covered by ENP. In the initial period, all operating costs of the infrastructure will be covered by ENP, and the aim is for the system to generate its own revenues.

In general, ENP aims to create a strong European alternative to global networks such as Visa and Mastercard by unifying the fragmented structure between countries and payment networks for a long time. The digital euro project developed by the European Central Bank (ECB) also plays an important role in this process.

It seems possible that the digital euro wallet under the control of the ECB will turn into a separate payment platform that complements the infrastructure of the ENP in the coming years. What do you think about this new payment network initiative in Europe?