EUROPEAN ACCEPTANCE 

• BNP Paribas and BPCE have launched Estreem, a new French payment processor which will process all card payments for BNP Paribas and Groupe BPCE in Europe. This amounts to 17 billion transactions per year and positions Estreem as the French leader in processing with 30% of card payments volume in France.
• PayPal and Verifone Partner to integrate PayPal into 35m of Verifone’s terminals globally, marking PayPal’s first omnichannel offering. The partnership will see Verifone’s in-person payment assets combine with PayPal’s enterprise payment processing and eCommerce capabilities – Braintree.

In other News…

BNPL

• Stripe has made Scalapay available on its platform, making its services available to Stripe’s merchants.
• Klarna and Nexi partner to boost merchant growth by offering Klarna’s payment options to Nexi’s European merchants.
• Euronics partners with Klarna, now offering customers of Euronics.co.uk Pay in 3 instalment payments. Klarna plans to launch pay in store in up to 600 Euronics stores across the UK.

CORPORATE ACTIVITY

• Stripe hits $91.5bn valuation driven by AI investment and increased payment volume ($1.4tr in 2024). Growth is also attributed to stablecoin advancements.
• ING Belgium partners with Mastercard to launch Click to Pay, a payment solution developed to accelerate and optimise online payments by eliminating manual card detail entry. Users create a single profile for secure, one-click transactions across devices.
• Marqeta to acquire TransactPay to strengthen card program management in the UK and continental Europe.
• BANCOMAT acquires stake in FlowPay a fintech specialising in open banking and digital payments.

DIGITAL & eCOMMERCE

• PayPal expands partnership with J.P. Morgan Payments, launching Fastlane in the UK and continental Europe. Designed for users who are not logged into a store account, Fastlane is a checkout solution that lets users save their payment and shipping information to speed up online purchases.

LITIGATION

• UK tribunal approves Mastercard’s £200 million settlement in a card fee lawsuit, despite opposition from the litigation funder.

MOBILE MONEY

• Nexi to connect German merchants to EPI’s Wero wallet, starting with eCommerce, Nexi plans to connect the first merchants in the Q3 2025 and expand to in-store later in the year. Computop will provide gateway services into Wero.
• PPRO becomes principal member of Wero. PPRO will support Wero’s e/m-commerce and in-store payment flows when it becomes available, starting with e/m-commerce in 2025. Both will be made available through PPRO’s local payments platform.

OPEN BANKING & PSD2

• Unzer launches Direct Bank Transfers powered by Mastercard’s open banking, users can pay directly from their bank accounts without needing a credit or debit card. Currently it is available in Germany and SEPA countries with plans to roll out further in Europe later this year.
• UK government issues £49m tender to bring open banking to Gov.UK Pay starting in 2025. It will be a 3-year contract under which bidders must also handle card payments for 1000+ public sector services, replacing existing providers.

REGULATION (UK)

• The UK government is examining whether to abolish the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and merging its functions into the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or whether to scrap it altogether.