Over the past two decades, Europe and the UK have taken distinctly different approaches to modernising their payments infrastructure. While the EU focused on building interoperability across borders through initiatives like SEPA and regulatory frameworks such as PSD2, it did so with a level of decentralisation that left each member state free to shape its own implementation.
The UK, on the other hand, took a more centralised route. With a single regulatory system and no need to reconcile national priorities, the country developed a tightly coordinated payments environment. Institutions like the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Bank of England and HM Treasury increasingly aligned their efforts. This culminated in the UK’s newly announced National Payments Vision, a formal strategy to deliver world-class infrastructure, drive innovation, and support competition without compromising on resilience.
While Europe’s approach has produced a rich mix of domestic payment champions – from iDEAL in the Netherlands to Bizum in Spain – the absence of a single, coherent vision at EU level is beginning to show. Regulatory ambition is high, but delivery is inconsistent. Meanwhile, the UK is acting with greater speed and unity.
This contrast has sparked growing debate about whether a more cohesive approach is needed in Europe, and whether the UK’s model offers any lessons.
At this year’s Money20/20 Europe conference, these differences came into sharper focus. In a panel discussion titled “Creating a European Payments Vision”, stakeholders from across the EU payments landscape acknowledged the strength of the UK’s unified roadmap. Oliver Hanmer, speaking both on stage and in a separate interview, made the case for why the UK is seizing the moment for radical reform rather than incremental change.
“There’s a real danger in just tinkering,” Hanmer said. “You’ll be back a few years from now having to fix what wasn’t addressed properly the first time.”
Across the room, European voices recognised the challenge of aligning so many stakeholders across borders, languages and regulatory cultures. Some argued that the EU’s vision already exists in fragments, expressed through legislation and market-led initiatives. Others suggested that what Europe lacks is not ambition, but a delivery mechanism.
Radical thinking in a regulated framework
The UK’s National Payments Vision (NPV), published in late 2024, sets out a strategic plan for modernising the country’s payments infrastructure, built around three key pillars: reforming governance structures, accelerating innovation (especially in open banking and real-time payments), and improving regulatory coordination. A central theme of the strategy is the opportunity to evolve how key institutions – notably Pay.UK – operate within the broader ecosystem.
The NPV has created an opportunity for transformation, uniting senior representatives from industry, regulators, and government to collectively shape the UK’s long-term payments strategy. Within this context, when reforming Pay.UK the focus has been on the technical and structural changes, as well as rethinking its role in enabling strategic progress across the ecosystem.
“You don’t want to rip everything up and start again,” Hanmer said during his interview with Payment Expert, “but you do want to think as broadly as you can about the options available.”
“It is important to not only focus on operational delivery but on how to deliver change for the good of the wider ecosystem, to embrace the opportunity the NPV brings, to think broadly and deliver positive change.”
This idea of “radical thinking” came up repeatedly; for the PSR, it means looking at bold options now, rather than settling for minor tweaks and facing more disruption later. The approach is also grounded in pragmatic cooperation. The PSR, Bank of England, FCA and Treasury have all agreed to a shared set of outcomes, enabling them to align on priorities despite their different remits.
For example, while the Bank of England focuses on system resilience, the FCA brings a conduct and growth lens, and the PSR emphasises competition and innovation.
What stands out about the UK’s model is not just the clarity of its vision, but the presence of a governance structure to deliver it. A dedicated delivery committee, chaired by HM Treasury, ensures that strategic coordination is not just aspirational, but embedded in the implementation process.
Europe’s patchwork has weak cohesion
If the UK has the clarity of a single roadmap, Europe arguably has a handful of sketchbooks.
While the EU boasts some of the most advanced domestic payment systems in the world – from Sweden’s Swish to Portugal’s MB Way – it lacks a unified strategic payments vision. Multiple speakers at Money20/20 acknowledged that although frameworks like SEPA, PSD2, and the forthcoming PSD3 provide structure, the implementation often varies significantly from country to country. As a result, European payment systems remain fragmented by regulation, governance, and commercial interests.
Madalena Cascais Tomé, CEO of SIBS, summed it up plainly during the panel session:
“Where do I find a single document that gives me a European payments vision? You don’t.”
Instead, what exists is a combination of digital finance strategies, evolving regulatory frameworks, and a patchwork of national solutions that succeed locally but struggle to scale across borders.
According to Fernando Rodríguez Ferrer of Bizum, this is less a failure of ambition and more a symptom of Europe’s structural complexity. He described the EU’s payments ecosystem as “vibrant, but not always interoperable” and pointed to the importance of supporting local champions while still building compatibility at a continental level.
One key issue raised throughout the session was governance. Several speakers pointed out that without a central coordination body, initiatives around open banking, account-to-account payments, and digital identity risk being duplicated or diluted.
Henk van Hulle of Open Banking Limited made the case for a more UK-style structure, stating: “You need a nucleus, a central point to move things forward.”
This absence of shared operational leadership was a recurring concern. Even where technical standards exist, stakeholders noted that operational rulebooks, dispute resolution processes, and commercial incentives are often missing or misaligned.
There was consensus that greater regulatory harmonisation and private-public collaboration would be necessary to make real-time, pan-European payment systems viable. But with each market moving at its own pace, the question remains whether such cohesion can be achieved without a fundamental shift in governance.
Innovation without direction?
While Europe and the UK may differ on governance, they share common pressures when it comes to innovation. Across several sessions at Money20/20, speakers highlighted the growing demand for faster, cheaper, and more flexible payment methods – and the technological and strategic challenges that come with them.
One standout example was the rise of stablecoins in B2B and cross-border flows. A panel titled “Every Company Needs a Stablecoin Strategy” featured companies like Stripe, Remote and Fireblocks discussing how digital currencies are being used to solve treasury, payroll, and liquidity challenges in markets with less stable currencies.
Neetika Bansal, Head of MaaS at Stripe, described a growing appetite from global businesses to use stablecoins for everything from contractor payouts to cross-border treasury management. “We’re seeing demand in four or five key use cases,” she said, “particularly from companies operating in regions where dollar access is limited or traditional rails are slow.”
Remote’s CEO, Job van der Voort, explained that in many emerging markets, stablecoin payments are faster, more reliable, and often preferred by contractors and freelancers. While adoption is still low overall – estimated at around 1% of payouts – the panel agreed the trajectory is sharply upward.
The broader point was clear: payments innovation is no longer optional. Whether through open banking, stablecoins, or embedded finance, financial services are being reimagined in real time. However, without cohesive strategy or regulatory clarity, even promising technologies can struggle to gain traction at scale.
This was echoed in discussions around account-to-account (A2A) payments. Despite technical maturity and lower fees, A2A has yet to achieve meaningful adoption at the point of sale in either the UK or EU. During his interview, Hanmer noted that the PSR wasn’t currently looking to intervene on A2A at the point of sale, suggesting the market had not yet demonstrated clear barriers that required regulatory action.
Meanwhile, European panellists pointed to a lack of consumer protections (such as chargeback mechanisms) as one of the main reasons A2A continues to trail card payments. Without a well-defined rulebook and strong dispute resolution, merchants and consumers alike remain cautious.
As Stripe CTO Rahul Patel put it earlier in the event: “Moving money should be as simple as sending a text message.”
Can vision become shared infrastructure?
Both the UK and the EU face a common challenge: how to modernise payments in a way that delivers resilience, fosters competition, and supports innovation at scale. But the paths they are taking to get there remain distinct.
The UK has the benefit of regulatory alignment and strategic clarity. The National Payments Vision sets a course for reform with clear roles, timelines, and a governance structure designed to deliver. Europe, by contrast, has broader reach, greater diversity, and more local champions, but remains held back by fragmented rulebooks, inconsistent implementation, and the absence of a single coordinating nucleus.
Still, there is room for optimism. Several panellists at Money20/20 pointed to areas of growing alignment, particularly on real-time payments, open banking standards, and stablecoin use cases. As cross-border commerce accelerates and digital identity frameworks mature, the logic of interoperability will only become stronger.
There is also a growing appetite for public-private collaboration on both sides. Hanmer himself noted that regulation works best when done with industry, not imposed upon it. “If you can influence the market to fix the problem before it needs regulating, that’s a win,” he said.
Likewise, European stakeholders repeatedly called for cooperative models that would allow for industry-driven standards to sit alongside legislative frameworks – mirroring, in some ways, the UK’s evolution from regulatory push to industry-led delivery.
Ultimately, if payments are to fulfil their potential as digital infrastructure, they require something more than just technological investment. They need vision, and the means to carry it out.
As Henk van Hulle put it during the EU vision panel: “You don’t move this forward with ideas alone. You need a mechanism that can lead.”
Whether that mechanism emerges at a pan-European level, or through a closer alignment between UK and EU frameworks, remains to be seen. But what is clear is that in a world where money moves faster than ever, strategy may be the most valuable currency of all.
