“We are highly dependent on international [payment] solutions,” said Martina Weimert, chief executive of the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a consortium of 16 European banks and financial services companies. The digital payments scheme now claims to have 48.5 million users in Belgium, France and Germany, with plans to expand to online and in-store payments by 2027. Weimert said banks and merchants largely had ‘’awareness’‘ of the need to build a cross-border European payments network, but the “geopolitical context” meant it was now “becoming a mainstream topic”. But Weimert warned that if geopolitical tensions were to deteriorate, the digital euro could arrive too late. “The problem with the digital euro is it will come in a couple of years, maybe after the mandate of [US President] Donald Trump.

Source: The Irish Times February 09, 2026 17:52 UTC