It is a sign of life that many no longer believed in. Finally, the European payment initiative comes forward with an idea to make payment transactions in Europe more independent of the American giants Visa and Mastercard.
Fast transfer via mobile phone
One project in particular gives hope: the initiative wants to buy a Dutch company that enables payments via a QR code. Customers only have to scan it, and the money is then debited directly from the account. In principle, this can be done at the checkout, in the restaurant and in the online shop. In addition, friends can quickly transfer money to each other via mobile phone, so the promise. In other countries, such as Brazil, similar applications are already extremely popular.
Now it can be argued that customers in this country don't need that at all. They can already pay conveniently with PayPal online, billing is done by credit card. At the checkout, they simply hold the card or smartwatch up to the terminal. So why QR codes?
The customers have to like it
This is the biggest challenge for the payment initiative, which consists of the merger of a number of European banks. The individual customer is not interested in whether an American or a German company processes their payments. On the other hand, it is essential for merchants and also for the entire European payment system not to be completely dependent on two corporations on the other side of the Atlantic. The more power they have, the more they can tinker with the fees.
It is therefore all the more important that the initiative makes the new system user-friendly. Customers only switch when an application simplifies their lives. Only then does the necessary network effect emerge that leads to more and more people and merchants using them. There are rightly some sceptics who doubt the success of the payment initiative. For the organization, this should be even more incentive to develop an uncomplicated European payment system.