European Credit Sector Associations welcome efforts to strengthen European retail payments

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Brussels, 1 July 2025 – In a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty and increasing digital transformation, the European financial ecosystem needs greater autonomy in one of the most critical domains of our daily economic lives: retail payments.

The European Credit Sector Associations (EBF, EACB, ESBG) warmly welcome initiatives by private payment actors towards interconnecting their solutions, such as the joint effort recently announced by the European Payments Alliance (EuroPA[1]), and the European Payments Initiative (EPI).

Initiatives such as these show the importance attached by private solutions to the need to strengthen Europe’s capacity to operate its own payments, based on Europe’s best-in-class payment solutions and increased mutual acceptance. Solutions that are user-centric, collaborative, and aim to enable interconnectivity, can support innovation, and help shape Europe’s future in alignment with European objectives.

As representatives of Europe’s banking sector and in a broader context of change and geo-political developments where resilience is key, we warmly welcome initiatives to strengthen European sovereignty in retail payments, considering also the European Authorities’ Retail Payment Strategies.

[1] In their announcement, EuroPA is represented by Bancomat, Bizum, MB WAY (SIBS), and Vipps MobilePay

For more information:

Alexandra Maniati, Senior Director of Innovation & Cybersecurity, a.maniati@ebf.eu

About the EBF:

The European Banking Federation is the voice of the European banking sector, bringing together national banking associations from across Europe. The federation is committed to a thriving European economy that is underpinned by a stable, secure, and inclusive financial ecosystem, and to a flourishing society where financing is available to fund the dreams of citizens, businesses and innovators everywhere.