European Credit Sector Associations welcome progress to strengthen European retail payments
Brussels, 2 February 2026 – The European Credit Sector Associations (EACB, EBF, ESBG) welcome and support the continued progress made by European payment initiatives towards interconnecting their solutions. Today’s announcement of the joint Memorandum of Understanding between Bancomat, Bizum, SIBS-MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay (all members of the EuroPA Alliance) and EPI Company (EPI) marks a major milestone in achieving availability of European home-grown retail payment solutions with their shared ambition of enabling seamless cross-border payments across Europe by 2027.
In the current context of geopolitical uncertainty and digital transformation, Europe’s banking sector shares the concerns and objectives of European policymakers regarding a critical element of our daily economic lives: retail payments. Europe’s banks have successfully adopted many of the pillars of the EU’s Retail Payment Strategy in recent years, and this latest announcement furthers these goals.
Bancomat, Bizum, EPI, SIBS and Vipps MobilePay represent solutions developed and supported by many national banking communities[1]. Together they serve approximately 130 million users, reinforcing the benefits of Europe’s Instant Payment Regulation[2] with a stronger user experience, simple, fast and trusted by customers. Building on the significant progress achieved at regional level, their collaboration and decisive joint actions now make them a strong alternative to non-European solutions.
These initiatives are yet another example of Europe’s strengths in modelling best-in-class solutions and consumer protection, which further bring to fruition the benefits of SEPA: the possibility for citizens and enterprises to use common European schemes developed by the European Payments Council to make and receive their transactions, in a highly competitive market.
As representatives of Europe’s banking sector, we warmly welcome initiatives such as this Memorandum of Understanding, which strengthen European sovereignty, resilience and competitive innovation.
[1] Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
[2] Regulation (EU) 2024/886 as regards instant credit transfers in euro: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/886/oj/eng
For more information please contact:
Alexandra Maniati, Senior Director of Innovation & Cybersecurity – a.maniati@ebf.eu
Christophe Bonte, Senior Policy Adviser – Payments & Innovation – c.bonte@ebf.eu
About the EBF:
The European Banking Federation is the voice of the European banking sector, bringing together national banking associations from across Europe. The federation is committed to a thriving European economy that is underpinned by a stable, secure, and inclusive financial ecosystem, and to a flourishing society where financing is available to fund the dreams of citizens, businesses and innovators everywhere.
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