Retail payments are undergoing profound transformation across the European Union. The steady decline in cash usage, combined with the rapid digitalisation of transactions, is reshaping how citizens and businesses pay. Card payments, instant payments, digital wallets and embedded payment solutions are becoming the norm, while consumers increasingly expect payments to be fast, seamless, secure and widely accepted across the Single Market.

This evolution is largely driven by private innovation and by a growing number of non-bank actors, including FinTechs and BigTechs, whose solutions often rely on non European infrastructures and schemes. While these developments have enhanced convenience and competition, they have also raised concerns regarding market concentration, operational resilience, governance, data protection and Europe’s strategic autonomy in retail payments.

Against this backdrop, the EU has made the development of an efficient, integrated and resilient retail payments market a strategic priority. Key policy objectives include ensuring universal access to digital payment solutions, strengthening consumer protection, fostering competition on a level playing field, and preserving the coexistence of central bank money and commercial bank money in an increasingly digital environment. Initiatives such as instant payments, common standards, pan-European payment solutions and the ongoing regulatory framework aim to reduce fragmentation and reinforce trust in retail payment services.

Central banks are also adapting to this changing landscape. They are exploring of a digital euro in addition to their contribution to the instant payment infrastructures (TIP). More broadly, the EU’s retail payments strategy seeks to balance innovation and efficiency with security, stability and effective governance, as the payments ecosystem continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace.