EU may launch alternative to Visa and PayPal

Lagarde said that Europe needs to develop its own alternative to secure financial sovereignty. In her view, a fully unified capital market could pave the way for deeper fiscal integration, potentially generating up to €3 trillion in added value annually.

She emphasized Europe’s reliance on foreign digital payment infrastructure.

“Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Alipay are all controlled by American or Chinese companies. We should make sure there is a European offer,” she said.

Her remarks come in the context of the EU’s broader initiative to create a single capital market across member states - a move aimed at boosting investment and improving access to financing for companies, while helping citizens save more efficiently.

However, building a European alternative to Visa and Mastercard faces serious challenges, including:

• Low interchange fees in Europe make it difficult to achieve profitability;

• Significant initial investment is required to create an infrastructure capable of competing with global players;

• Adoption hurdles, such as changing consumer and merchant behavior, and convincing banks to support a new system;

• Technical complexity, particularly regarding security, fraud prevention, and cross-border compatibility;

• Governance and coordination, as member states and institutions must align on implementation and oversight

US trade war

Recently, US President Trump imposed large-scale tariffs on imported goods against all countries. The tariff programme also included Ukraine, which was subject to 10% tariffs.

The Ukrainian government stressed that the scenario is difficult, but not critical. The EU and China, in turn, immediately threatened the US with countermeasures.

Today, Trump has already begun to demand reparations for past years from Europe.

Read more about Trump's tariffs and how they affect global markets in the material by RBC-Ukraine.