Since Donald Trump has returned to power, Europe has been concerned about its reliance on the United States, and how it could potentially threaten European security. One such area under scrutiny is digital payments.

The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, has said she is alarmed.

Lagarde told independent Irish radio broadcaster, NewsTalk, recently that Europe would need to "reduce vulnerabilities that arise from the current payment platform's infrastructure being foreign-owned" and make sure there is a "European offer available — just in case."

For her, it is "important to keep digital payments under our control."

Europeans are ardent users of cashless payments, with 56% of all cashless transactions in the first half of 2024 being made by card, according to ECB data. That's more than 40 billion transactions.

But the extent of reliance on US card networks like Visa and Mastercard varies significantly across EU member states.

Some countries, like Ireland and the Netherlands, are completely dependent on Visa and Mastercard, the ECB data show. Others, such as Germany and France, have their own domestic card systems and are therefore less reliant on US firms.

In Germany, the Girocard — formerly known as EC card — holds over 70% of the market share, while in France, national payment systems account for nearly 80%.

One expert offering a more skeptical view is Hugo Godschalk, a payments consultant with four decades of experience in the finance industry. He told DW that if you look at total European payment traffic — including business-to-business transactions........

© Deutsche Welle