Under the aegis of the ECB, several European banks want to undermine the American hegemony in the electronic means of payment by setting up a 100% European system. A project that bears the funny name of Pepsi, for pan european payment system initiative.

A project named Pepsi. This has nothing to do with a well-known brand of soda, but the name (comical) chosen by major European banks for an initiative that plans to thwart US hegemony in the means of payment, Visa and Mastercard in mind. And if the pan-European payment system initiative (Pepsi) is not yet at the stage of discussions, the political will is very real.

At the time of contactless banking cards and telephones equipped with NFC chips [to make purchases, ed], the observation is clear: almost all means of electronic payment comes to us from the other side of the Atlantic . The idea is to develop competing and efficient European technologies with which we can pay anywhere in the world. The aim of this project is ambitious: to reach at least 60% of electronic payments in Europe.

A project led by the ECB

"In the long run, it is too dangerous to be dependent on the Americans, and tomorrow the Chinese, on a question as crucial as the means of payment," they say in Paris. Because yes, the European dependence of means of payment is a real political issue of sovereignty, that's why the ECB is leading this project. Among the banks participating in this discussion, we find BNP Paribas French side, but also Italian, German, Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese, or Spanish. One thing is certain, when the European Union wants to fight against the hegemony of Uncle Sam, it does not lack humor to name his project.