ECB welcomes the EPI’s progress on building a European payment solution

25 April 2023

The European Central Bank (ECB) welcomes the announcement by the European Payments Initiative (EPI) of new shareholders and planned acquisitions for building an instant payment solution in Europe.

With this step, in 2023-24 the EPI is proceeding with the launch of a digital wallet solution based on instant account-to-account payments, under a single brand and covering multiple use cases.

As outlined in its retail payments strategy, the Eurosystem supports the creation of European payment solutions for point-of-interaction payments. Such solutions should have a pan-European reach and customer experience; and should have a European brand and governance. They should be convenient and low cost, safe and efficient, and in the long run they should be globally accepted.

The ECB encourages the EPI to pursue its aim of including all markets and more participants, in order to achieve its goal of being a pan-European initiative.