Europe is building its own payment network to finally compete with Visa and Mastercard

[mbk34]

I’d be very surprised if that number was accurate, in it being the EU has that large a number of customers for the Credit Card Companies.

Actually it’s completely inaccurate.

It’s definitely not an accurate number but 25% of Mastercard customers were inside the US which meant 75% were in countries outside the US.

The reasons for countries moving away from Mastercard and Visa include: Keeping the money in their own country - that 1% Mastercard fee means that 1% of all transactions is currently leaving the country and going to America (that's a lot of money). Customers appreciate lower fees and want better data protection. At a country level we also worry about the transaction system being used as a weapon as it has been done against ICC decisions. Finally there's simple national pride.

I looked up what had happened in various countries where they produced a viable alternative. In Norway they’ve introduced a national system called BankAxept and this system now handles approximately 80% of transactions in Norway. It’s a similar story in Belgium where they introduced Bancontact and it now handles between 80% and 90% of all transactions. In France they use Cartes Bancaires and it accounts for 85% of all transactions. It's probably laziness or foreign visitors that account for the remaining Mastercard and Visa transaction in these countries.

Most of Europe is looking to move, as is the UK, Russia and China. It seems likely that all countries will move in the coming years. If you apply that to the rest of the world then I don’t think my estimate is that far off though maybe 60% is more realistic.

 

[lostinlodos]

We’re in general agreement. lol.
National banking platforms are a good thing. Not just decoupling from the US either. The US decoupling from them as well. A single linked economy that fails destabilises the whole system. Be it France or Greece, or whoever else. Not that the US is exactly economically in a good point, though it’s stable.

I will return to the data privacy statement again though, and point out that as any sort of real movement, it’s a European thing, and a Western European one at that.
It’s the wrong term, but I’m not sure how to better say it: calling it data protection is a bit disingenuous.
Ask anyone if they want their personally identifying information protected, and nearly all will say yes.
Ask them if they care a company has their mailing address to send coupons, the number changes quickly.

It’s oversimplifying it, but that’s what it is at its core.
I consider the cookie banners spam. Every time I have to click “allow all cookies”, the EU is spamming me with a banner.
Be nice if the paid me for the lost clicks. Just saying.


As for the article and my original premise:
Good for the EU.