The European Payments Initiative (EPI) has entered its next phase and has announced Worldline and Nets as shareholders of the EPI Interim Company, as the first third-party acquirers to join the initiative.
Nets and Worldline join EPI as first 3rd party acquirer
In July 2020, a group of 16 major European banks from five countries (Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) paved the way for the future launch of the EPI, by announcing the creation of the EPI Interim Company, responsible for initiating the implementation of the joint payment initiative.
The ambition of EPI is to create a pan-European payment solution leveraging Instant Payment/SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), which offers a card for consumers and merchants across Europe, a digital wallet and P2P payments and directly competes with the dominance of the American brands Visa and Mastercrd.
The solution aims to become a new standard in payments for European consumers and merchants across all types of retail transactions including in-store, online, cash withdrawal and “peer-to-peer”, as an alternative to international payment solutions and the schemes.
The joining of third-party acquirers will greatly contribute to the expansion of EPI’s acceptance network on the merchant side in Europe and will allow EPI to build up its own payment ecosystem in the continent. Other well-progressed expansion talks are also ongoing with various players.
“Worldline warmly welcomed the launch of the European Payments Initiative by 16 major banks earlier this year, and consequently gladly accepted their invitation to join the EPI interim Company as the first non-bank acquirer,” said Gilles Grapinet, Chairman and CEO of Worldline in a press briefing.
“Almost 20 years after the introduction of the Euro, the moment has come to join forces in a collective effort to provide consumers and merchants with a truly European digital payment solution, carefully designed for the business needs of the 21st century.”
“The European Payments Initiative will benefit the entire payments ecosystem in Europe,” continued Bo Nilsson, Group CEO of Nets.
“All stakeholders including issuers, acquirers, merchants and ultimately the end-consumers will gain from a strong and truly European digital payment solution. As a pan-European PayTech leader, and with our origin in one of the most digitised regions in the world, we look forward to becoming a significant contributor to designing and establishing a successful EPI platform.”
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