EU payment providers are building a new network to cut down on US tech reliance

• Five of Europe's biggest payment providers have agreed to enable cross-border payments
• European Network for Payments is a common framework for interoperability
• Combined, they already reach over 70% of the EU/Norway's population

Five European payment providers have come together to create the European Network for Payments (ENP) following a memorandum of understanding signed by the companies earlier in 2026.

With the ENP, the five platforms – Italy's Bancomat, Spain's Bizum, Portugal's MB WAY, the Nordics' Vipps MobilePay and Europe's Wero – will support Europe-wide interoperability.

Instead of replacing any of those platforms, the Network (ENP) will act as an interoperability layer between those companies – and potentially more in the future – so that users can send more payments to more people, without having to ditch their favorite app.

European Network for Payments is all about Europe-wide interoperability

In a press release, the Network revealed that those five platforms alone already reach 130 million users, which represents more than 70% of the EU and Norway's combined populations.

The goal is to enable instant account-to-account payments, but rollout is set to happen in stages, beginning with person-to-person payments across international borders. E-commerce will come later, and then physical, in-store payments will form the final release.

"By connecting strong national solutions through a common framework, we are enabling seamless cross-border experiences while preserving the diversity, trust and proximity that each system has built in its own market," Bancomat CEO Fabrizio Burlando explained – a hint to the bloc's ongoing digital sovereignty efforts.

In an earlier investigation, the Commission had already noted differences in standards covering QR codes, NFC and Bluetooth, impacting borderless payments. The Commission also declared that "the EU’s electronic payments market is dominated by a few large global players."

The European Central Bank also revealed that three in five (61%) card transactions in the euro area in 2022 were handled by international card schemes.

As for what's next, the European Network for Payments hopes to have implemented all three types of payments (person-to-person, e-commerce and physical retail) by the end of 2027.

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