Visa and Mastercard process nearly half (47%) of eurozone card payments in 2025, with concentration reaching 95% in the United Kingdom. The European Parliament backed the digital euro project with a 43-to-14 vote, and a 12-month pilot is scheduled to start in the second half of 2027 with 36 financial firms including Deutsche Bank, Revolut, Adyen, and UniCredit. Businesses will be required to accept digital euros by 2029, with costs for European banks estimated at 4 to 6 billion euros over four years, while the ECB faces 1.3 billion euros in initial setup costs and roughly 300 million euros in annual operating expenses. The initiative aims to strengthen European strategic autonomy against U.S. payment network dominance, as 15 of the 21 euro area countries still lack a domestic digital payment solution. The digital euro will compete with Wero, a bank-funded digital wallet already boasting 50 million users.
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