The #SEPA topic as well payments in Europe were widely discussed at Sibos 2024, but this article and discussion goes a bit deeper on the topic and provides some good discussion points.
Helping Payment Leaders Drive Growth | Fintech Advisor, Entrepreneur, Chair & Independent Director| PCF-3 & PCF-2B | Techstars Alumni & Mentor
Are BLIK and EPI's Wero the start of a new era for European payment schemes or another false dawn? Great article from Frank Breuss & Regimantas Maliauskas in Paypers on whether EPI's Wero and BLIK can finally transform Europe's payment landscape. Some great insights: ❗ While individual European countries have successful local payment schemes including iDEAL in the Netherlands, SWISH in Sweden, Giropay in Germany and Bankcontact in Belgium, these are national solutions that don't operate on a cross-border basis. ❌ Europe has a history of failures in unified payment solutions, driven by limited use cases and lack of support from banks but ultimately the biggest challenge is that Europe is more fragmented than people appreciate ❎ The creation of the SEPA in the Eurozone to harmonise cross-border payments shows what can be achieved. Still, we see continuing trends of banks prioritising domestic schemes and ongoing IBAN discrimination reducing the effectiveness of SEPA and the wider EU/EEA passporting regimes. So with this inauspicious context, what makes them think BLIK and Wero can succeed where so many previous efforts have failed? ✅ Both have been designed to address the omnichannel payment needs of consumers with BLIK being highly successful in Poland ✅ Both are achieving a high level of support from shareholder banks, while BLIK has expanded with support from its shareholder banks, Wero is also gaining increasing support from major European banks which has been absent in previous attempts. ✅ EPI has also taken the bold move of acquiring successful local schemes, iDEAL and Payconiq to give it a stronger foundation as it enters the market with Wero. But is this all enough to yield a new dawn for European Payments or will the age-old challenges of a fragmented banking landscape, the dominance of global players, the need to build consumer trust quickly and, most importantly, the need for clear use cases that drive consumer engagement required to build trust? What do other people think? #payments #SEPA #EPI #Wero #BLIK Image courtesy Flagship Advisory Partners and article linked in the comments
