Europe Warns of Dangerous Dependence on Visa and Mastercard

The European Union must rapidly reduce its dependence on American payment systems Visa and Mastercard and develop its own cross-border cashless payment solutions, according to Martina Weimert, chief executive of the European Payments Initiative. In an interview with The Financial Times, Weimert highlighted Europe's technological and institutional reliance on external actors, stressing that the current market structure creates long-term risks for the region. Structural Dependence and Strategic Vulnerabilities Visa and Mastercard dominate card payments across the eurozone in a systemic manner. Available data shows that the two companies account for roughly two-thirds of all card transactions within the currency bloc.