Today, there are probably not many people who do not have at least one payment card. The overwhelming majority of these cards use the Visa or Mastercard networks. So when we pay by card in a shop or online, we are very likely using one of these two US companies.
Visa and Mastercard are global card systems that intermediate payments between the cardholder’s bank and the merchant’s bank. They ensure that the payment is fast and secure – they transmit information between banks, verify the transaction, set the rules for payments in a different currency, and ensure the conversion of the amount according to their own exchange rates.
The two companies mentioned process more than half of all card payments in Europe – they are widely used, and most of the continent is therefore dependent on them. This dependence, however, is not an isolated case.
Since Donald Trump’s second rise to the presidency of the United States, European states, because of his confrontational style, have increasingly sought to reduce their dependence on US firms.
This logically also applies to payment systems and other situations where the issue is the same: how to gradually push large US corporations out of electronic payments.
European digital wallet
The European Central Bank (ECB) has been warning for some time that dependence on foreign card networks exposes Europe to political pressure or sudden disruptions.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Visa and Mastercard were able to cut Russia off virtually immediately and block its access to the global payment system. And this is far from being only about the strategic security of European states.
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Magdaléna Fajtová