Europe Wants Its Own Card Rail… But Visa and Mastercard Still Dominate

Hey Payments Fanatic!

Here’s the hard reality... 👇

The overwhelming majority of Europe’s C2B card transactions still run on the rails of Mastercard and Visa.

And that does not even include co-branded cards.

In the FT this week,  Martina Weimert, CEO of the European Payments Initiative Wero, made an urgent call for European alternatives. The ambition is clear. Build a sovereign scheme. Reduce structural dependency.

But the numbers tell the real story. Two American networks. Decades of compounding. Deep issuer integration. Merchant acceptance everywhere. Rewards flywheels that reinforce themselves.

The data below puts it into perspective, and the broader context is already sparking some interesting debates:

Building a third scheme is not a product challenge. It is a scale challenge. In payments, network effects are ruthless. So the question is simple.

Can Europe realistically build a true third global scheme… or will sovereignty look very different from the old card model?

Check out today's updates and stay informed. 👇 I'll be back next week with what's shaking up the payments industry worldwide.

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

🇪🇸 Agentic payments: the next frontier in digital commerce by Getnet. The blog explains that consumers increasingly expect seamless, low-friction experiences, and highlights McKinsey’s estimate that agentic commerce could generate $3–5 trillion in global value by 2030. Agentic payments allow users to set intent, limits, and conditions in advance. Read the full article here

➡️ The Stablecoin Dilemma: Compete, Collaborate, or Be Disintermediated by DashDevs. Igor Tomych argues that stablecoins are evolving from a crypto experiment into a meaningful settlement layer for global payments, forcing banks to decide whether to compete, collaborate, or risk disintermediation. He highlights how stablecoin adoption is driven by speed, cost efficiency, and store-of-value demand, with wallets emerging as a key battleground. Explore this topic further here

NEWS

🇦🇿 Mastercard reaffirms long-term commitment to Azerbaijan’s digital future. During meetings with government counterparts, Mastercard emphasized that it values the strategy and priorities set by the President and the Government of Azerbaijan and reiterated its willingness to collaborate on areas such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, and supporting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.

🇳🇿 Airwallex kicks off Super Rugby partnership as official business finance partner of the Blues. As the Official Business Finance Partner of the Blues, Airwallex will modernise the club’s financial and commercial operations, from simplifying travel expenses and day-to-day spend to managing domestic and international payments.

🇬🇧 Ecommpay named in CNBC/Statisa Top 150 FinTechs List. The ranking highlights leading FinTech companies across multiple market segments, selected through Statista research and CNBC editorial input. Ecommpay said the inclusion reflects its focus on innovation, sustainability, accessibility, and inclusive payment solutions as the UK remains a major global FinTech hub.

🇺🇸 ‘X Money’ to launch limited external beta within two months. Musk said during an ‘All Hands’ presentation at his AI company xAI that “X Money is currently running as a closed beta internally,” adding that it will “be introduced as a limited external beta in one to two months.”

🇨🇳 Alipay AI Pay solution hits 120m transactions as Chinese shoppers tap agentic commerce. Alipay collaborated with Rokid to enable developers to integrate AI payment into the AI agents they build on Rokid’s Lingzhu platform. Based on the MCP model, developers can access this capability and deploy it on smart devices through natural language rather than complex coding.

🇯🇵 PayPay and Visa enter into a strategic partnership agreement to advance global and domestic payment innovation. Through this broad-based partnership globally and in Japan, PayPay and Visa will combine their respective strengths and begin exploring collaboration aimed at creating new cashless payment experiences.

🇯🇵 Japan's PayPay app eyes Nasdaq in $19.6bn IPO in March. The company will submit registration documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this month. It will then sound out institutional investors through a book-building process based on an indicative price range before setting the final offer price.

🇮🇹 Nexi unveils SmartStation. The new modular offering is specifically designed to simplify and digitize in-store acceptance for a wide range of store formats, enabling software-integrated commerce and payments for merchants. Keep reading

🇺🇸 zerohash integrates Monad to power real-time USDC stablecoin payments. The integration allows FinTechs and payment platforms to launch stablecoin-powered flows through zerohash’s APIs and SDKs without managing blockchain infrastructure, custody, liquidity, or compliance themselves. 

🇨🇴 AstroPay and Xoom enable direct payouts to the AstroPay Wallet. With this integration, Xoom users can choose the AstroPay wallet as their destination directly from the Xoom website or app. Funds are delivered quickly, providing a convenient solution for users. 

🇺🇸 Cash App adds payment links so you can get paid in a DM. The feature allows app users to send payments via a hyperlink that can be attached to a variety of communications. Cash App says that the links can be used for recurring payments as well as group payments.

🇦🇪 UAE Central Bank approves launch of Dirham-backed stablecoin DDSC. Backed by IHC, Sirius, and FAB, DDSC is designed for institutional use cases, including payments, settlement, treasury management, and trade flows. Continue reading

🌍 Starbucks taps Adyen to power in-store payments across 940+ European stores. The migration was completed in just seven weeks and has already processed more than 20 million transactions, with store staff reporting faster and more intuitive payments.

🇺🇸 Nixxy, Inc. announces strategic partnership with PayToMe.co to accelerate Telco + FinTech convergence. The partnership is designed to integrate PayToMe. co's proven embedded payment and invoicing capabilities into Nixxy's global telecom footprint, bringing payments, settlement, and compliance automation.

🇧🇪 Defrancq pioneers Wero invoice payments via POM. The rollout marks Wero’s expansion beyond person-to-person transfers into business payments, offering higher transaction limits and a smoother invoice settlement experience. Initially available to customers of ING and KBC, broader bank support is expected later this year as Wero scales across the Belgian market.

🇺🇸 Yuno partners with BVNK to power stablecoin payments for global commerce. The integration provides Yuno customers with direct access to BVNK's digital asset infrastructure, allowing businesses to accept and process stablecoin transactions alongside traditional payment methods through Yuno’s unified global payments platform.

🇺🇸 Sabre, PayPal, and Mindtrip partner to deliver the industry’s first end-to-end agentic AI experience for travel. Together, the companies are replacing today’s fragmented multi-step booking processes with a single, intelligent experience that moves seamlessly from inspiration to action, with the product set to launch in Q2 2026.

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