A2A (account-to-account) payments
Payments that move directly between bank accounts - via open banking or domestic schemes like BLIK, iDEAL, Bizum and Wero - bypassing the card networks entirely.
A2A is the most sovereign rail in European payments: no Visa, no Mastercard, no interchange - money moves bank-to-bank, increasingly instantly (SEPA Instant). Domestic schemes (BLIK, iDEAL, Swish, Bizum) dominate their home markets; Wero aims to make A2A pan-European.
For merchants it means lower fees and instant settlement; for the sovereignty debate it is the existence proof that Europe can run its own rails. The catalogue separates true scheme operators from PSPs that merely accept the methods.
Primary source: Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (PSD2) · European Payments Council
In the verified data
- 37 live operators and initiators of domestic and account-to-account schemes are profiled; by documented use, 29 work at e-commerce checkout, 15 for person-to-person transfers, 16 in store and 11 contactless.
- On the open-banking side, 26 of 38 providers document payment initiation and 4 variable recurring payments (GoCardless, Token.io, TrueLayer and Yapily) - the A2A answer to the card on file.
Recomputed from the catalogue and the official EBA, ESMA and FCA registers on every build — how we verify.
Questions to ask a provider
- Which domestic schemes and banks do you reach, and what share of accounts in my markets does that cover?
- Do payments settle via SEPA Instant, and do you support refunds and recurring payments?
- Who carries the cost of a failed or disputed payment?