European payments groups join forces to lessen US reliance

MADRID/PARIS/MILAN, Sept 30 (Reuters) - European domestic payment groups serving 130 million people, including Spain's Bizum, Italy's Bancomat and Wero, said on Wednesday they were combining forces to form a joint company to oversee cross-border payments.

Europe has been trying to curb its dependence on Visa and Mastercard, over fears the Trump administration ‌could limit access to the US payments infrastructure. The two US giants now handle almost two-thirds of the bloc's card payments. 

While the European Central Bank aims to introduce a digital euro by 2029, essentially an online wallet guaranteed by the ECB but operated by private companies including banks, national payment systems are focused on interlinking their own networks.

The new European Network for Payments (ENP) will be based in Madrid and operate a common interoperability hub, joining up the different payment systems, the firms said in a statement.

European policymakers have made payments sovereignty a priority as a fragmenting global order raises risks over access to payments systems and new forms of money challenge the euro.

ENP's founders are Bancomat, Bizum, EPI Company/Wero, SIBS-MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay, which together serve around 130 million users across 13 European countries, representing more than 70% of the population of the EU and Norway.

The network would connect existing payment systems through a common technical and operational layer based on European standards and instant account-to-account payments, they said.

Other European payment schemes could join in the future, they said, adding that a phased rollout will begin with cross-border person-to-person payments, followed by e-commerce and point-of-sale transactions. 

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado in Madrid, Elizabeth Howcroft in Paris and Valentina Za in Milan; Editing by Alexander Smith)