The Spanish Banking Association (AEB), CECA and the National Union of Credit Cooperative Banks (Unacc) support the interconnection of payment systems and European sovereignty in these systems, through the agreement between the European Payments Alliance (EuroPA) and the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to interconnect their solutions, with the aim of advancing European sovereignty in payment systems—retail payments in this case—one of the most crucial aspects of our daily economic life.
The banking associations highlight that initiatives of this kind demonstrate the importance of collaboration among existing private solutions in helping to strengthen Europe’s capacity to operate its own payments, at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty and accelerating digital transformation.
In addition, AEB, CECA and Unacc, as part of the European Financial Sector Associations (ESBG, EACB, EBF), argue that user-centric, collaborative solutions that seek to enable interoperability can support innovation and help advance Europe’s objectives for strategic autonomy.
It should be noted that Bizum, the instant payments platform promoted by the Spanish banking sector and part of EuroPA, has more than 29 million users, who carried out almost 1.1 billion transactions in 2024, with a value of €60 billion. Person-to-person transactions grew by 14% in 2024, and by 93% in the case of payments to merchants.
