A2A and local payment schemes in Europe
39 verified European providers, ranked European-origin first (31 EU/EEA-origin). Account-to-account methods (Wero, BLIK, iDEAL, Bizum) that bypass Visa/Mastercard - the strongest sovereignty angle. Compare by EEA data residency, licence and regulator - each verified at source.
39 verified providers
Last source verification in this list: 2026-07-13. How we verify →
BANCOMAT (BANCOMAT S.p.A., Rome, Italy) - Italy's domestic card and A2A schemes (BANCOMAT, PagoBANCOMAT, BANCOMAT Pay), owned by 125 Italian banks; ~34m cards and ~2.5bn operations a year. PagoBANCOMAT is often co-badged and BANCOMAT Pay is A2A. European card scheme + A2A.
Bancontact Payconiq Company (Brussels, Belgium) - operator of Bancontact, Belgium's domestic card + A2A scheme (2018 merger of Bancontact and Payconiq); shareholders Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis, ING, KBC and AXA. Rebranding to 'Bancontact Company' / 'Bancontact Pay' (spring 2026) and introducing Wero. European card scheme.
BankAxept (Norway; est. 1991) - Norway's domestic debit scheme, owned by Norwegian banks via Finance Norway, with brand and standards managed by Sto AS. Processing historically via Nets, clearing via NICS (Mastercard); mostly co-badged. European card scheme.
Bizum (Bizum S.L., Madrid, Spain; est. 2016) - operator of Bizum, Spain's A2A real-time scheme; owned by Spanish banks, 30m+ users, rolling out to POS and e-commerce in 2026 as an alternative to Visa/Mastercard. EuroPA member. European scheme.
Bluecode (Austria) - mobile account-to-account (A2A) payment scheme; bank-account-linked QR/barcode payments, no card rails. Pan-European payment-sovereignty play, live across 20+ EEA markets.
Borica (Bulgaria; owned by 19 Bulgarian banks) - national card switch and processor operating the Bcard national scheme, and a TPP for Visa/Mastercard. Licensed by the Bulgarian National Bank (3 payment systems).
Bridge (France) - open banking AIS/PIS by Bankin' (ACPR-regulated group): account data and A2A payments.
Brite AB (org.nr 559116-1632) - licensed Payment Institution, Swedish FSA (Finansinspektionen); instant A2A / pay-by-bank across Nordics + EU.
Dankort (Denmark; est. 1983) - Denmark's domestic debit scheme (held by ~90% of Danes), operated by Nets A/S (part of Nexi); a 2025 Danish law opens processing beyond the Nets monopoly. Often co-badged with Visa/MC. European card scheme.
EPI Company (Belgium / pan-EU) - operator of Wero, an A2A scheme owned by 16 bank and PSP shareholders (BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, ING, KBC, SocGen, Nexi, Worldline, Sparkassen and others); acquired iDEAL and Payconiq (Oct 2023). 50m users; e-commerce from 2026.
Fintecture (France) - open-banking / A2A payment infrastructure using SEPA instant transfers as a card alternative (lower fees, fraud reduction). PIS-licensed (ACPR / Banque de France); member of France FinTech.
Getswish (Stockholm, Sweden) - operator of Swish, the Swedish A2A mobile scheme; owned by six Swedish banks (Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Länsförsäkringar, Nordea, SEB, Swedbank/Sparbankerna), with 8m+ users and 300k+ merchants, settling via RIX. European scheme.
girocard (Germany) - Germany's domestic debit scheme, managed by Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft (GBIC) with scheme manager EURO Kartensysteme GmbH (Frankfurt); 100m+ active cards, ~1.3m POS. Mostly co-badged with Visa/MC. European card scheme.
Groupement Cartes Bancaires (GIE CB, France; est. 1984) - operator of CB, France's domestic card scheme, founded by major French banks (BNP Paribas, SocGen, Crédit Agricole, BPCE, Crédit Mutuel, La Banque Postale). >95% of CB cards are co-badged with Visa/MC (EU IFR art. 8); ~65% of French purchases. Flagship European card scheme (co-badge).
Iberpay (Madrid, Spain) - operator of the Spanish national payment system (SNCE): clearing and settlement of credit transfers, instant payments, direct debits and cheques for the Spanish banking community; Spain runs at approx. 54% instant-transfer share vs approx. 16% EU average (726m SCT Inst, EUR 104bn in 2023); new Nextia platform and Request to Pay with CaixaBank. Financial market infrastructure overseen by Banco de Espana - the sovereign Spanish rail.
Inespay (Spain) - the leading payment-initiation (PISP) provider of Spain and Portugal: account-to-account bank-transfer payments (Transferencia Online) covering 99%+ of online-banking users across Iberia. Payment institution authorised by the Bank of Spain.
Mooney (Milan, Italy; born Dec 2019 from the merger of SisalPay and Banca 5) - Italy's proximity banking and payments leader: bill payments, PagoPA payments, prepaid top-ups and cash services at 45,000+ bars, tobacconists and newsstands. E-money institution. Jointly controlled by Enel X and Intesa Sanpaolo (50/50) since Jul 2022 - ownership flag (EU).
Neonomics (Norway) - open banking with a Nordic PIS focus. PI + PISP + AISP (Norwegian Finanstilsynet), passported across the EU.
pagoPA (Rome, Italy) - the state-owned platform for all payments to the Italian public administration: standardised online and offline payments through participating PSPs; approx. EUR 97bn processed per year. Operated by pagoPA S.p.A. (state company, est. 2019); sale to Poste Italiane and the state mint (IPZS) for up to EUR 500m agreed in Nov 2025 - stays state-controlled. A sovereign domestic payment rail by design.
Polski Standard Płatności S.A. (Warsaw, Poland) - operator of BLIK, the domestic A2A mobile scheme that bypasses cards; owned by six Polish banks (PKO BP, mBank, ING Śląski, Santander, Alior, Bank Millennium), with the BLIK system approved by the NBP. ~20m+ users, expanding to SK/RO. KRS 0001141221. European scheme.
Redsys (Spain; est. 2011) - Spain's interbank processor / switch, owned by Spanish banks (Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Sabadell and others); ~90% of Spanish e-commerce, 19.7bn+ transactions and EUR 505bn/yr. Supports cards and Bizum.
Satispay (Satispay Europe SA; Italy / Luxembourg) - an independent Italian A2A mobile payment network and circuit. EMI Luxembourg (CSSF, reg W00000010), authorised by the Bank of Italy.
SIBS (SIBS SGPS, Lisbon, Portugal; since 1983; controlled by 27 Portuguese banks) - operator of the Multibanco and MB WAY domestic schemes and a pan-European processor; MB WAY covers 94% of Portuguese issuers, operating in 25+ countries. Acquired a majority stake in Poland's IT Card / Planet Pay (completed 2026) for CEE expansion. European scheme + processing.
Tink (Sweden) - open banking AIS + PIS across 3,400+ banks in 18 markets. Authorised PI (Swedish FSA, ID 44059); acquired by Visa in 2022 (EUR 1.8bn).
Trustly (Sweden; founded 2008) - pay-by-bank / A2A leader across the Nordics and EU, over SEPA. Licensed PI (Swedish FSA + FCA UK).
Vipps MobilePay (Norway) - the merged Nordic A2A wallet (Vipps NO + MobilePay DK/FI; EU-approved, live 01.11.2022), 12m+ users and dominant in Norway (~80-90% of mobile); owned ~72% by Vipps banks and 27.8% by Danske Bank. EuroPA member (LOI May 2025). European scheme.
Zimpler (Stockholm, Sweden) - instant account-to-account payments and payouts for European businesses: pay-ins, instant cross-border payouts and a technical partnership making Swish available to merchants through Zimpler's A2A stack. Payment institution (Swedish FSA).
BKM (Interbank Card Center, Turkey; bank-owned) - operator of the Troy domestic card scheme, the BKM Express wallet and the national card switch.
TWINT (TWINT AG, Zurich, Switzerland; founded 2016) - operator of TWINT, the Swiss A2A mobile scheme; owned by BCV, PostFinance, Raiffeisen, UBS, ZKB, SIX and Worldline, with 6m+ users (~2/3 of Switzerland) and 901m+ transactions in 2025. NB: Switzerland is outside the EEA. European scheme (non-EEA).
Banked Ltd - FCA-registered (open banking / A2A pay-by-bank, UK). Numeric FRN to capture from FCA register.
GoCardless (UK) - FCA-authorised bank-debit / A2A specialist. Being acquired by Mollie (USD 1.1bn, agreed Dec 2025, close mid-2026).
Noda (UK / EU) - open banking A2A payments across the UK and EU. Licensed PISP.
Token.io (UK) - A2A payments and data across 21 markets (UK, DE, PL, SE and others). Authorised AISP + PISP.
TrueLayer (UK) - FCA-authorised AISP + PISP and a UK/EU pay-by-bank leader; acquired Zimpler (Nordic/Swish).
Volt (UK) - a global real-time A2A network on open banking (Europe/UK/Brazil/Australia). PISP.
Yapily (UK) - white-label open banking infrastructure across 2,000+ banks in 19 EU countries. AISP + PISP (FCA).
Ivy, now Augustus (US; founded in Munich 2021 by Ferdinand Dabitz and Peter M. Lieck) - instant account-to-account bank payments API (open banking) backed by Valar Ventures and Creandum (USD 30m+); rebranded to Augustus in May 2026 after conditional OCC approval to form a US national 'clearing bank for the AI era'. EEA rail: Ivy Pay Oy (Finland PI). HQ decides origin (rule 8a); German founding heritage noted.
kevin. (Vilnius, Lithuania) - A2A payment infrastructure that aimed to bypass cards. NB: bankrupt Sep 2024 (Vilnius court), PI licence revoked by the Bank of Lithuania - a proof-of-value entry for the status/risk column.
Quicko (Quicko Sp. z o.o., Poland) - open banking / A2A. NB: National Payment Institution licence (KNF IP52/2021) revoked 21 Jan 2026.
FAQ
What are local payment schemes and why do they matter for sovereignty?
Domestic rails like BLIK, iDEAL, Bizum, Swish and Wero move money account-to-account, bypassing the US card networks completely. Fintechnologica lists 39 scheme operators and A2A initiators (31 European-origin) - the most sovereign layer of European payments.
What is Wero?
Wero is the European Payments Initiative's account-to-account wallet (backed by major European banks), rolling out P2P and e-commerce payments and absorbing iDEAL. It is Europe's most serious attempt at a pan-European alternative to card rails.