Europe’s largest domestic payment schemes are moving to connect their systems to create a cross-border alternative to international networks, marking one of the most coordinated attempts yet to build a sovereign European payments infrastructure.

A memorandum of understanding signed by Bancomat, Bizum, SIBS, Vipps MobilePay and the European Payments Initiative (EPI) signals a shift from feasibility to implementation. The partners say they intend to enable seamless cross-border payments across Europe by 2027 by linking existing national solutions through a shared interoperability layer rather than replacing them.

The cooperation spans solutions that collectively serve around 130 million users across 13 countries, representing roughly 72% of the population of the European Union and Norway. The initiative is open to additional markets, including non-euro jurisdictions, and is framed by its backers as an industry-led effort to reduce reliance on non-European payment providers.

While the political framing centres on sovereignty and strategic autonomy, the project’s immediate focus is more practical: connecting established domestic schemes so they can operate across borders without forcing consumers or merchants to abandon familiar payment apps or infrastructures.

Connecting Europe’s fragmented payment landscape

Europe’s retail payments ecosystem has long been characterised by strong domestic schemes operating alongside international card networks and global technology platforms. Despite the creation of the Single Euro Payments Area and ongoing expansion of instant payments, cross-border retail and small-value commercial transactions often still rely heavily on international networks.

The new cooperation model aims to establish a shared interoperability hub that enables existing national and pan-European solutions to communicate. Rather than creating a single new wallet or replacing domestic platforms, the model preserves local brands and user experiences while enabling cross-border functionality behind the scenes.

The central hub will serve as a technical layer, enabling transactions to move between participating systems using European standards and infrastructure, including instant account-to-account payments. The partners intend to establish a central interoperability entity in the first half of 2026, followed by technical development and proof-of-concept testing.

The rollout is expected to be phased. Cross-border peer-to-peer payments are targeted for 2026, with e-commerce and point-of-sale capabilities scheduled for 2027. Coverage of additional use cases will depend on adoption by banks, merchants and consumers across participating markets.

The approach reflects a growing recognition that building a new payments scheme from scratch across Europe would be difficult and slow. Linking existing systems offers a faster route to scale, particularly given the varied regulatory, technological and consumer landscapes across member states.

From sovereignty to implementation

For policymakers and industry participants, the initiative is part of a broader push for European payments sovereignty. Concerns about reliance on non-European infrastructure have intensified in recent years, particularly as digital wallets, card networks and technology platforms have grown in importance across retail and commercial transactions.

Supporters of the project argue that Europe already has the infrastructure and scale required to build a credible alternative. By connecting domestic schemes through a shared interoperability framework, they say the region can develop cross-border functionality without dismantling widely used and trusted existing systems.

Martina Weimert, chief executive of the European Payments Initiative, says the agreement marks a significant step towards a more integrated payments ecosystem: “This agreement demonstrates that Europe’s payment sovereignty is not a vision, but a reality in the making. 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.”

The partners emphasise that the initiative builds on existing infrastructure. The EuroPA alliance, for example, has been operating across several southern European markets and has demonstrated the ability to connect domestic mobile payment systems. Expanding that model across more countries and use cases is seen as the next step.

Still, moving from feasibility to implementation will require coordination across banks, payment providers and regulators, as well as alignment with European regulatory frameworks such as the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation and instant payments initiatives.

What it could mean for corporates

For corporate finance and treasury teams, the project’s relevance lies less in sovereignty rhetoric and more in whether it translates into tangible changes in payment flows across Europe. Many corporates operating across the region continue to manage fragmented collections and disbursement channels. Card payments remain dominant in retail and e-commerce, while account-to-account transfers and instant payments vary by country. This creates complexity in reconciliation, settlement timing and fee structures, particularly for businesses operating across multiple European markets.

A successful interoperability layer linking domestic account-to-account schemes could simplify certain cross-border payment flows over time. For example, a unified European wallet and instant payment infrastructure could enable faster customer collections across countries, reduce reliance on card networks for intra-European transactions, and improve visibility into settlement timing.

Faster settlement and clearer payment data could, in turn, support working capital management by shortening cash conversion cycles and improving forecasting accuracy. For treasurers, the ability to receive and make payments across multiple European markets through a common infrastructure could reduce the number of payment rails and formats they need to manage.

However, these outcomes will depend heavily on adoption by banks and merchants. Even if interoperability is technically in place, corporates will only benefit if payment service providers integrate the infrastructure into their offerings and if customers and suppliers choose to use it.

Pricing models will also be a factor. While supporters of the initiative argue that a European account-to-account network could lower acceptance costs compared with card payments, the final cost structure for merchants and corporates remains unclear.

From ambition to adoption

The agreement marks a shift from feasibility to execution, but the real test will be adoption. The partners have set out a phased timeline, with cross-border peer-to-peer payments expected to go live first, followed by e-commerce and point-of-sale capabilities from 2027. Corporate use cases such as supplier payments, marketplace flows and cross-border collections could follow as banks and payment providers integrate the infrastructure into their offerings.

For now, most treasury teams are likely to treat the initiative as one to watch rather than one that requires immediate operational change. Much will depend on how quickly banks embed the new interoperability layer into their payment services, how it connects with enterprise resource planning and treasury management systems, and how pricing compares with existing card and account-to-account options. The interaction with instant payments schemes and wider European regulatory developments will also shape the pace of adoption.

The direction of travel, however, is clear. Europe is moving towards a more connected, account-to-account payment environment, with sovereignty and efficiency increasingly linked. If the project reaches scale, it could gradually reshape cross-border payment flows within the region, simplifying collections and disbursements and offering corporates a more integrated infrastructure. If adoption proves uneven, it is likely to sit alongside existing networks rather than replace them.

Either outcome would mark a shift from vision to practical experimentation. The coming two years will determine whether Europe’s push for a sovereign payments ecosystem becomes a structural change in how money moves across the region, or another layer in an already complex landscape.