PayLens Radar: five schemes build one European hub, and Adyen takes Flatpay's back end

PayLens Radar · Tuesday 6 October

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Five national schemes incorporate one European hub in Madrid

Bancomat, Bizum, EPI with Wero, SIBS with MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay have incorporated a jointly owned company in Madrid, each with an equal share, to run the interoperability hub they agreed in February. Together they reach about 130 million users in 13 countries. P2P first, then e-commerce, then the till.

Europe's answer to Visa and Mastercard has so far been strong domestic schemes that stop at their own borders. A company with equal shares, a seat and a work plan is the step the 2024 letters of intent never reached, and the first structure capable of carrying a cross-border domestic alternative to the till.

EPI Company · Read the article

• Adyen takes the back end of 100,000 small merchants

  Adyen will supply the platform, local acquiring and scheme connections behind Flatpay in Denmark, Germany, Finland, the UK, France, the Netherlands and Italy. Flatpay keeps the 100,000-plus merchants and its flat pricing, and gains the option of instant settlement, cash advances and card issuing.

  EUPartnership

• ECB asks merchants to help build the digital euro, by 9 November

  The ECB opened two digital euro workstreams to merchants, PSPs, fintechs and consumer bodies, with applications due 9 November. The experimentation strand runs January to June 2027 on integrated electronic receipts, multi-payer transactions and conditional payments, all of which reach the till.

  EURegulatory

• Apple Pay hits 49% of German online shops, Wero starts at 3%

  EHI went through Germany's 1,000 most important online shops: 97.2 percent offer a wallet, PayPal 96.3 percent, Apple Pay 49.0 percent from 37.8 a year ago, Google Pay 32.0 from 23.1. Wero, listed for the first time, reaches 3.0 percent. Amex sits at 52.3 percent, outside the interchange cap.

  DEStrategy

• Stripe buys Parafin to lend to its platforms' small businesses

  Stripe agreed to buy Parafin, the embedded lender behind credit at DoorDash, Gusto, Jobber and Mindbody, which has funded over 60,000 businesses since 2020. No price was given; Parafin was valued at 750 million dollars in late 2024. Acquirers keep buying lenders: receivables are the underwriting.

  GLOBALM&A

• Worldline puts its Italian acquiring share at 10%, from 4% in 2022

  Marking twenty years in Italy, Worldline disclosed 250,000 merchants, 16 million cards and more than 200 bank distribution partners, and said its share of Italian acquiring has reached around 10 percent against 4 percent in 2022. That is the same bank-referral channel Nexi is built on.

  ITStrategy

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