SIBS, together with Bancomat, Bizum, Vipps MobilePay and EPI (European Payments Initiative), announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that marks a decisive step towards strengthening Europe’s payment sovereignty. The agreement aims to deliver seamless cross-border payments across Europe by 2027, by connecting existing national and pan-European solutions through a central interoperability hub.

Following the successful completion of the feasibility phase, the initiative now moves into implementation. The cooperation brings together solutions serving around 130 million users and will initially cover 13 European countries, representing around 72% of the population of the European Union and Norway, with openness to additional European markets, including non-euro countries.

European consumers will continue to use their preferred payment solutions, such as MB WAY, now with broader European reach, while merchants will be able to accept payments from European customers using trusted European solutions. Existing brands, user experiences and features will remain unchanged, supported by interoperability based on European standards and infrastructures, including instant account-to-account payments.

The rollout will be phased, starting with cross-border peer-to-peer (P2P) payments in 2026, followed by e-commerce and point-of-sale (POS) payments in 2027. This industry-led initiative builds on Europe’s best-in-class payment solutions and infrastructures, creating a scalable, sovereign and truly pan-European payments ecosystem for consumers and merchants.