European Payment Groups Establish Shared Cross-Border Hub
Bancomat, Bizum, Wero, MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay have formed a Madrid-based entity to connect their account-to-account payment systems.
Bancomat, Bizum, EPI Company/Wero, SIBS-MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay have established a joint entity to operate a shared interoperability hub between their European payment systems. The group named the Madrid-based company European Network for Payments, or ENP.
The partners announced the entity on September 30 after signing a memorandum of understanding in February. ENP is not yet a live pan-European payment service. Its founders say they are preparing the technical implementation, with a phased rollout intended to begin with cross-border person-to-person transfers. E-commerce and point-of-sale payments are planned for later phases.
The five founders will hold equal shares. ENP will coordinate the common technical and operational layer, manage future functionality and oversee the possible addition of more payment solutions. Existing consumer brands and user experiences are meant to remain in place.
One hub connecting existing payment systems
The model is an interoperability project rather than a new wallet replacing national products. Bancomat, Bizum, Wero, MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay would connect to a central layer based on European standards and instant account-to-account payments. A customer would continue using the payment service already offered in their home market.
That distinction matters because the founding systems are at different stages and serve different use cases. The announcement says the participating solutions together reach about 130 million users across 13 European countries, representing more than 70% of the population of the European Union and Norway. Those are the founders' aggregate coverage figures, not a claim that 130 million users can already make cross-network payments through ENP.
The entity follows a February agreement that completed the partners' feasibility phase and moved the project toward implementation. At that point, the group said the central hub would route transactions between existing national and pan-European systems while leaving their brands and features unchanged. The September announcement turns that proposed operating company into an established entity, but does not provide a public launch date for the first ENP transaction.
The rollout starts with peer-to-peer payments
The implementation plan begins with cross-border person-to-person transfers. E-commerce and in-store payments are due to follow in subsequent phases, subject to the technical and operational work now under way. The new announcement does not repeat the February statement's more specific 2026 and 2027 targets, so those earlier dates should be treated as the partners' roadmap rather than confirmed availability.
Parts of the wider system already operate independently. Wero is live for person-to-person payments in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg, according to EPI, while its online and in-store availability varies by country. Bizum, Bancomat and MB WAY already participate in the narrower EuroPA interoperability alliance, and the Nordic Vipps MobilePay services have their own domestic reach. ENP is intended to connect these established products at a broader scale.
The common layer will use instant account-to-account payments rather than a card-network settlement model. The release does not name the final message standard, commercial terms, consumer limits, dispute process or settlement arrangement that will apply across every participating system. Those details will determine how uniform the customer experience can become once cross-network transfers start.
What has changed since the February agreement
The February memorandum described a future central entity and a technical implementation programme. The September event is narrower but concrete: the partners say the entity now exists, is headquartered in Madrid and has an equal-shareholder structure. ENP can therefore begin hiring, coordinating integration work and defining the operating framework.
The announcement also leaves room for other established European payment solutions to join if the founders agree and the entrants meet the network's technical and operational requirements. It does not name new members or claim regulatory approval for every future market.
The next evidence to watch is operational rather than organisational: named participating banks, a published rulebook, live cross-network transactions and a market-by-market availability schedule. Until those appear, ENP should be read as an implementation-stage payment infrastructure company connecting systems that are already live separately.