A coalition of European payment providers is establishing the European Network for Payments (ENP), a new network designed to connect national payment systems and facilitate cross-border transactions across the continent.
The goal is to create a common technical and operational layer that allows participating payment systems to work together, including for instant account-to-account payments. For example, a customer could use Spain’s mobile payment network Bizum to pay a merchant using Portugal’s MB WAY.
The venture is backed by several major payment providers, including the Wero digital wallet, Italy’s Bancomat, and Vipps MobilePay, which operates across the Nordic countries. Altogether, the participating providers serve about 130 million customers across 13 countries, reaching more than 70% of the EU.
An Alternative to U.S. Rails
The ENP is part of a broader European effort to reduce reliance on Mastercard and Visa. U.S.-based payment rails process more than 60% of card transactions in Europe, while 13 of the 21 eurozone member states rely exclusively on international card schemes.
“Europeans have been chasing the thought of their own payment network since the first Payment Services Directive in 2007,” said Brian Riley, Co-Head of Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research. “The objective is to create a network similar to Mastercard and Visa, but that is easier said than done. Sure, political boundaries are now unified, but as the European Central Bank knows, harmonizing financial institutions is awkward at best. Consumer and merchant behaviors also differ.”
A Slow Process
The ENP grew out of a memorandum of understanding signed in February 2026, when the participants announced plans to create a shared, interoperable entity. The payment networks, however, have been working toward interoperability for some time. In March 2025, Bizum established connections with Bancomat and MB WAY, enabling mobile transfers among more than 50 million people across Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Andorra.
The rollout is expected to begin with cross-border peer-to-peer payments, followed by e-commerce and point-of-sale payments. No target dates have been announced, and expanding interoperability across multiple national systems could take time.
“There is likely a decade before something is viable in the EU market,” said Riley. “And by then, as payments constantly reinvent themselves, who can imagine what payments will look like.”
