EPI Refreshed and With New Impetus

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) was established to build a unified pan-European payment system to rival Mastercard and Visa. Consumers and merchants would be able to use a card, digital wallet and make person-to-person (P2P) payments. The idea was backed by the European Central Bank (ECB) and 31 banks joined the EPI.

20 banks subsequently pulled out, including all Spanish banks and Germany’s Commerzbank and DZ Bank, because they could not agree terms for outside funding. Plans for a payment card were dropped at this stage.

The remaining shareholders – BFCM, BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, DSGV, ING, KBC, La Banque Postale, Nexi, Société Générale and Worldline – have now been joined by ABN Amro, Belfius and Rabobank, and DZ Bank has re-joined.

EPI has now bought Dutch payment scheme Currence iDeal and Payconiq International, the mobile payments app supported by a host of Belgian and Dutch banks.

EPI aims to create a multi-faceted digital wallet and an instant account- to-account payment service under one brand and available across all European countries. Initially it will enable P2P and person-to-professional payments. The plan is to launch a pilot in France and Germany at the end of 2023 with a broader market launch in Belgium, France and Germany in early 2024. This prioritisation is because these markets represent over half of all non-cash payments in the Euro area.

These launches will be followed by online and mobile shopping and, finally, point-of-sale (POS) payments. In time the aim is to introduce buy now pay later financing, digital identity features and the integration of merchant loyalty programmes.

The initiative has been backed by the European Savings and Retail Banking Group, which believes the venture has found an answer to the possible fragmentation in instant payments across the European Union.