Europe’s €24 Trillion Break from Visa and Mastercard: Digital Euro, Wero, and the Fight for Payment Sovereignty

For decades, most European card payments have flowed through two US companies: Visa and Mastercard. In 2023 alone, they processed roughly €4.7 trillion in payment volume across the bloc . Today, they handle about 61% of all card payments in the euro area and virtually all cross-border card transactions .

EU leaders no longer see this as just a cost or competition issue. They view it as a threat to financial sovereignty — a risk that the infrastructure Europeans rely on for daily payments could be leveraged as a geopolitical weapon .

In response, Europe is pursuing a two-track strategy: a public central bank digital currency (CBDC) — the digital euro — and private-sector initiatives like the Wero wallet and the EuroPA alliance. Together, they aim to build a European-owned payment ecosystem that can compete with, and eventually replace, dependence on US card networks.

The Digital Euro: Plan, Progress, and Timeline

The digital euro is an electronic form of cash issued and guaranteed by the European Central Bank (ECB). It is designed to complement physical cash and existing banking services, not replace them .

Phases Completed

• Investigation phase (October 2021 – October 2023): Concept definition, technical exploration, and design proposal .
• Preparation phase (November 2023 – October 2025): Rulebook development, technical specifications, and market engagement .
• Current phase (since November 2025): Ongoing preparations focused on advancing technical readiness, deepening market engagement, and supporting the legislative process .

Legislative Progress

• The digital euro Regulation is under negotiation between the European Parliament, EU governments, and the European Commission.
• In June 2026, the ECB secured key parliamentary backing: lawmakers voted to begin trialogue talks with EU governments .
• The working assumption across EU institutions is that co-legislators will adopt the Regulation in the course of 2026 .

Pilot Programme and Issuance Target

• In July 2026, the ECB selected 36 payment service providers from across the euro area to participate in a digital euro pilot, including some of the zone's largest financial firms .
• The pilot will take place at the ECB and several Eurosystem national central banks, testing technical functionality, operational processes, and user experience .
• A 12-month pilot is expected to start in the second half of 2027, with initial transactions possible as early as mid-2027 .
• A potential first issuance of the digital euro is targeted for 2029, contingent on the Regulation being adopted in 2026 . The ECB has stated it will only decide whether to issue a digital euro once the legislation has been adopted .
• In July 2026, the ECB also published version 0.91 of the digital euro rulebook, incorporating feedback from a large-scale market consultation .

Private European Payment Initiatives: Wero and the EuroPA Alliance

While the digital euro is still in development, private-sector alternatives are already live and growing rapidly.

Wero: Europe's Digital Wallet

Wero is the consumer-facing digital wallet built by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a consortium of 16 founding European banks and payment service providers . It operates on SEPA Instant Credit Transfer rails — EU banking infrastructure that is entirely independent of US card networks .

Key milestones for Wero:

• Launched July 2024 in Germany; now live in Germany, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg .
• 43.5 million registered users as of September 2025 .
• Expanding to the Netherlands in 2026, migrating from the iDEAL system .
• E-commerce payment functions added from late 2025 onward, with point-of-sale (in-store) NFC payments planned for 2026–2027 .
• Backed by major banks including Deutsche Bank, ING, BNP Paribas, and ABN AMRO .

The European Payments Alliance (EuroPA) Network

On 2 February 2026, EPI signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the EuroPA Alliance, a consortium linking Spain's Bizum, Italy's Bancomat, Portugal's SIBS, and the Nordic Vipps MobilePay system .

• The agreement connects approximately 130 million users across 13 countries into a single interoperable payment network .
• It creates, for the first time, a credible pan-European domestic alternative to Visa and Mastercard at scale .
• The combined platform has the potential to reach up to 380 million users across 15 European countries .

How Private Initiatives Complement the Digital Euro

Private initiatives like Wero and EuroPA are not competing with the digital euro — they are complementary pieces of a larger strategy :

• Private initiatives fill the immediate gap: They provide a European-owned instant payment infrastructure now, while the digital euro remains years away from issuance .
• Shared distribution channels: The digital euro is designed to be offered through private-sector intermediaries — banks and payment service providers — the same ecosystem in which Wero and EuroPA operate .
• ECB endorsement: The ECB has explicitly stated that private-sector payment solutions and the digital euro are complementary: private initiatives handle day-to-day payments innovation, while the digital euro provides a risk-free, universally accessible central bank money anchor for the entire system .
• Planned integration: EPI has indicated it is willing to integrate the digital euro into the Wero wallet, creating a unified European payments layer that would reduce implementation burden for banks .

Why Reducing Reliance on Visa and Mastercard Is a Sovereignty Issue

The EU treats this as a matter of financial sovereignty for several interconnected reasons:

Structural Dependency

Visa and Mastercard process approximately 61% of all card payments in the euro area and nearly all cross-border card transactions . European retail payment systems are structurally dependent on US-based card networks and ICT/cloud providers . A 2025 European Parliament study concluded that this continued dependence "represents a structural vulnerability for both European banks and the Union's financial sovereignty" . The study assesses that a digital euro, if widely adopted, could reduce reliance on foreign payment networks in the long run .

Geopolitical Vulnerability

EU leaders now view this dependence as a risk Europe can no longer ignore, given the possibility that US-controlled payment infrastructure could be turned into a geopolitical weapon amid fraying transatlantic relationships . ECB board member Piero Cipollone warned: "If we lose control of our money, we lose control of our economic destiny" . ECB President Christine Lagarde has also stated that Europe needs its own digital payment system "urgently," warning that virtually all European card and mobile payments currently flow through non-European infrastructure .

Strategic Autonomy, Not Just Cost Savings

The push for payment sovereignty is part of a broader EU strategy for economic and financial autonomy . As Reuters described it, the digital euro is "essentially an electronic version of cash aimed at making the euro zone less reliant on US credit cards" . A June 2026 report noted the timing is driven by "fraying transatlantic relationships" . The European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee approved the digital euro in June 2026 specifically "as the EU seeks to reduce its reliance on US-controlled payment systems" .

A Unified European Payments Future

The ambition is clear: by the 2030s, European consumers and businesses should be able to make instant, low-cost payments entirely within EU-owned infrastructure — whether through a private wallet like Wero or through the public digital euro. The two systems are designed to work together, with EPI already planning to integrate the digital euro when it launches . As one analysis put it, the February 2026 EuroPA deal "for the first time gives Europe a credible domestic alternative to Visa and Mastercard at scale" .