28 European banks have started working on a cashless payment system cooperation that would operate across Europe and could work independently of existing international schemes (Mastercard, Visa, Discover, etc.).
How the PEPSI initiative, triggered by the European Central Bank, will come to life is not yet clear.
The cooperation, PEPSI (Pan-European Payment System Initiative), is intended to cover all cashless payments, and what has been written about PEPSI indicates that it will cover every type of cashless payment:
- Instant payments
- Card payments
- Person-to-person payments, etc.
Although PEPSI is expected to cover the entire world of cashless payments, it is very likely to have a say in the world of card payments as well.
Just as it has become increasingly necessary for banks, which used to operate as closed boxes, to cooperate with fintechs in order to become stronger, PEPSI looks set to make cooperation with the large international schemes mandatory.
In a globalizing world that gets smaller as it globalizes, are you ready to say hello to a more global and more interconnected world of payment systems, with the giants of payment systems working together?
