Glossary
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.