Europe Just Fired Visa and Mastercard
The EU isn’t arguing with America anymore... it’s building its own money rails and walking away
You know how you can tell when trust is gone?
Nobody argues.
They just stop showing up.
That’s what Europe just did to Visa and Mastercard.
No drama.
No press conference.
No chest-thumping speeches.
They simply built their own payment system… and started unplugging from America.
Quietly.
And that should make Washington way more nervous than any trade war headline.
For decades, almost every European card swipe ran through American companies.
Visa.
Mastercard.
PayPal.
Two-thirds of eurozone card payments.
Trillions of euros.
Every coffee. Every grocery run. Every online order.
All flowing through U.S. financial pipes.
Which means…
America didn’t just earn fees…
It controlled the rails.
And whoever owns the rails owns leverage.
So Europe built a bypass.
It’s called Wero, created by the European Payments Initiative.
Right now?
• 48.5 million users
• Belgium, France, Germany live
• Expanding to 13 countries
• About 130 million users coming online
• Already processed €7.5+ billion in transfers
This isn’t a startup.
It’s backed by 16 major banks, including BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank.
In other words…
Not a tech experiment.
A financial declaration of independence.
Here’s the part most people miss.
This isn’t just about saving on fees.
It’s about control.
With Wero, you send money using just a phone number.
No credit cards.
No American processor in the middle.
No U.S. network touching the transaction.
Europeans paying Europeans.
On European infrastructure.
Period.
That’s payment sovereignty.
Why now?
Because the world watched something very closely in 2022.
Visa and Mastercard cut Russia off.
Instantly.
Flip the switch… you’re out.
Whether you like Russia or not doesn’t matter.
The message landed…
“If America owns your payment system… America can shut you off.”
And European policymakers thought…
“Yeah… maybe let’s not hand over that kind of power.”
Even Mario Draghi basically said the quiet part out loud.
Deep interdependence creates dependency.
Dependency creates leverage.
Leverage gets weaponized.
So they’re fixing it.
Fast.
Even Christine Lagarde has warned Europe is “highly dependent” on non-European payment networks and needs alternatives urgently.
When central bankers start using words like urgently…
Adults are moving furniture.
Now let’s talk money.
Visa and Mastercard process over €7 trillion in European payments every year.
If Europe captures just 20% of that?
That’s €1.4 trillion moving off American networks.
Card fees run around 1–2%.
Do the math.
That’s roughly €20+ billion a year in revenue walking out the door.
Not shrinking.
Walking.
And there’s something even bigger.
Data.
Every payment tells a story…
What you buy
Where you go
How often
With whom
When you’re stressed
When you’re broke
When you’re flush
That data used to pass through U.S. systems.
Now it stays in Europe.
Which means Europe keeps its own economic intelligence.
That’s national security stuff, not bookkeeping.
What really cracks me up?
Visa and Mastercard execs say they’re “not worried.”
That’s adorable.
This isn’t a competitor opening across the street.
This is a whole continent pouring concrete and building a new highway that goes around you.
Good luck competing with that.
Here’s the bigger picture.
China is diversifying away from U.S. debt.
Countries are trading outside the dollar.
Now Europe is ditching American payment rails.
See the pattern?
Allies aren’t fighting America.
They’re quietly reducing dependence.
Because relying on unpredictable policy is a risk.
And risk gets engineered out.
Nobody yelled.
Nobody protested.
They just built their own system.
That’s how real power shifts.
Not with noise.
With plumbing.
And Europe just changed the plumbing.
The Recap…
Europe just launched its own payment network to replace Visa and Mastercard.
48 million users already.
130 million coming.
Trillions moving off U.S. rails.
No speeches.
Just independence.
This is what “walking away” looks like.
The Gut Punch…
When your friends start building alternatives to you…
you’re not leading anymore — you’re being hedged against.
Source Credit:
Based on reporting and data from the Financial Times and European Payments Initiative announcements.
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#CanadaStrong
As a citizen of the U.S. I loudly and enthusiastically applaud Canada and Europe for EVERYTHING they do to disengage from the oligarchs trying to wrest control of my country and the world out of the hands of the citizenry. Bravo, y'all. Thank you. Sincerely. Keep up the good work!
Canada we need to do this too get off american payment systems