A group of 16 European banks and financial service providers, including Deutsche Bank and Sparkassen, wants to introduce a new European payment system in just a few months, in early 2024. This was reported today (25.4.2023) by the German business newspaper handelsblatt.com in an online article (behind paywall).
The major banking project European Payments Initiative (EPI) is an app for mobile-to-mobile payments that will integrate Girocard, debit and credit cards from international providers in Germany.
The aim is to counter the U.S. online payment service Paypal (29 million active payers in Germany) and the U.S. credit card companies Mastercard and Visa and secure Europe's independence in payment transactions.
EPI also plans to offer its app-based payment in online stores by the end of 2024 and payment at store checkouts in the course of 2025. In preparation, large-scale acquisitions in the payment provider market are underway, as first reported by an industry service.